The Port trade was the last remnant of the British monopoly in Portugal. In 1986, Portugal began allowing the independent export of estate-bottled, single-Quinta ports. Before this, shippers controlled most of the vineyards in Port, and tiny family producers had no other recourse except to sell to the big brands or produce wines for domestic consumption only. Under Joäo Roseira, Quinta do Infantado (established in 1816) was one of the first properties to take advantage of the new freedom. Due to various factors, their process is very intensive and yields little wine; the Quinta can meet just a portion of international demand for its old-school wine. All the grapes are hand-picked, fermented long & slow in lagares (2-foot high stone tanks), and are still trodden by foot (less than 2% of Port is still made by this method). The juice is then aged in oak barrels and bottled with little or no filtering and fining.
