Flatgate Partnership Vinhos S.A. was founded in 2001 when the Portuguese company Taylor' s bought the two port wine companies Croft and Delaforce from the English drinks multinational Diageo (Delaforce was sold on to Royal Oporto at the beginning of 2008). Taylor's had already acquired the port wine company Fonseca-Guimarãens in 1948. The three port brands are produced independently under their own names. In 2005, the entire stock of 4,500 barrels and the warehouses of the Osborne company in the Porto suburb of Vila Nova de Gaia were taken over. Every year, around 20,000 pipas of 550 litres each are purchased from small producers. According to director Adrian Bridge, the company wants to send out a signal that it continues to believe in port wine instead of going into the production of mass-produced wines like other port houses. Fiorma owns several wine estates in the Douro Valley with over 600 hectares of vineyards. Fladgate Partnership is owned by descendants of the Yeatman family, one of the founding families of Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman (full name of Taylor's).
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