Man of action: Adrian Bridge on his passion for Port

There are few people who could write UN peacekeeping officer, winner of the sword of honour at Sandhurst military academy, and investment banker on their CV. Fewer still that could have turned their hand to wine, leading one of the world’s biggest Port brands to its 325th year. But there is no one that could also boast to have competed in the 1985 European bobsleigh Championships for Great Britain.

“Not a lot of people know that,” quips Adrian Bridge, CEO of the Fladgate Partnership, revealing his brief but intriguing career as a bobsledder with the British Army. Equally intriguing is his 500-strong collection of ancient drinking vessels, which includes a cup from 6,000BC. But it is Port that we are here to discuss, a topic close to Bridge’s heart, and one that led him into the industry in the first place.

Graduating from Sandhurst, Bridge joined the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards in 1983 and spent a year as a UN peacekeeping officer in Cyprus during a five-year stint in the Army, before carving out a career as an investment banker in the City. It wasn’t until he met his future wife, Natasha, a descendant of the Yeatman family, that her father, Alistair Robertson, invited him to join one of the Douro’s biggest Port dynasties. Bridge joined The Fladgate Partnership, whose Port brands include Taylor’s, Croft, Krohn and Fonseca, in 1994, and was appointed managing director of the group in 2000. But the decision to turn his back on a career in finance for one in wine was not as easy as it might have seemed, he says.

INTENSE COMPETITORS

“I had a very successful career as an investment banker in London, really at the front end of things. Yes, here is an extraordinary company that had reached its 300th anniversary and was sitting at the top of its industry. But my own perspective was that I needed to bring something that added value, because companies are living things made up of a lot of moving parts, and the most important parts are the people. You can’t just sit there and rest, you have to make things happen.”

Following this philosophy, Bridge’s involvement with the group has been transformative. In the past two decades, Bridge has overseen multiple acquisitions, including a €30 million (£26m) deal to buy Delaforce and Croft Port from Diageo in 2001 and the subsequent formation of The Fladgate Partnership, with the group’s staff numbers rising from around 80 in 1994 to 793. Today, the group jostles for the title of world’s biggest Port producer with the Symington family, who Bridge describes as “good friends but intense competitors”, with each holding a third of the market. Over the past 23 years, Bridge has been a passionate supporter for the production of premium Port, a vocal advocate for scrapping the Douro’s controversial beneficio system, an ambassador for tourism and a driving force in Port’s ongoing evolution.

And while the fortified category in general has suffered significant declines in the past decade, Port has remained stable, becoming the fastest growing category of fortified wines in the UK, with value sales now growing ahead of volumes in the UK as the commodity end of the market continues to decline.

“Today we have a market with a very even spread and a wide range of Port styles. We have got strong competition that allows innovation to continue to flow,” he says, although adds that such innovation is still constrained within a regulated industry. “We also have a broadening amount of consumption moments. So although Christmas is still a very dominant moment in the year for Port, sales throughout the rest of the year are still very healthy and there are new moments of consumption.”

But while the Port category remains robust, it still faces a number of challenges, says Bridge, specifically with regards to the beneficio system, devised in the 1940s to control the production of Port. The beneficio, controlled by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto, classifies vineyards by quality criteria such as aspect, yield, soil and vine age, awarding them with an A-F rating, which determines the amount of grape spirit they can buy, and therefore the amount of Port they are able to make each year.

ANTIQUATED SYSTEM

Its intended purpose is to balance supply and demand, and ensure that the very small grape growers, of which there are many in Portugal, are able to make a living. However, Bridge argues that the system is antiquated and unnecessary, calling it a constrained system that results in “evolution, not revolution” by restricting innovation.

“If people are honest, the beneficio can’t be justified, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of economic interest in it being maintained,” says Bridge. “Now is a time for boldness to unleash more innovation, which is fundamental. The reason I say that is quality Port is in growth. The volume and commodity side of the industry is in decline, particularly in the UK. It’s impossible for a commodity industry making 10 or 12 euro cents a bottle to have the capital to reinvest. So, ultimately, you make a choice over slow decline or a radical approach. We are ready for a radical approach, because we need to unleash innovation. That will come from people in the industry being liberated and not being constrained by regulation.”

Bridge argues that scrapping the beneficio would give producers more control over the use of their grapes, spurring innovation. He is confident that the market would do the job of controlling supply and demand, pointing out that the beneficio being in place has not stopped the price of Port from being driven down to the lowest level. While it would not be a “pain-free” ride, Bridge says it is “the right thing to do”.

REINVEST IN QUALITY

“The capacity to grow top-quality grapes in the Douro valley is unquestionable. If you look at fine vintage Ports or fine table wines that are being made it is probably one of the most exciting regions in the world. However, there are about 600 farmers that really count; those with more than 10 hectares. They are the people that invest and provide employment and reinvest in quality. They are the people that are fundamental to our business and any Port business, but they are constrained by a system that allows them to make only half of what they produce into Port. The other half gets sold below the cost of production. Many have chosen to turn that other half into table wine and create value – and that’s logical – but I would liberate the system and allow people to make a choice.”

Bridge is aware that scrapping the beneficio is a politically charged subject, arguing that it disproportionality supports ‘weekend farmers’ producing very small quantity of grapes, but that it was a conversation that needs to take place.

“It’s a tough thing to say politically, but, frankly, we need to worry a little less about the weekend farmers that produce 200 kilos of grapes a year. The amount of money they make is €300 to €400 a year, it’s not a lot, and it’s bizarre that you have that sort of social subsidiary being paid by a private industry like Port to sustain subsistence ways of life that are not going to be relevant to the next generation. There is a need to be bold; boldness will unleash a huge increase in quality.”

While the potential for greater innovation is possible, it is not something that The Fladgate Partnership appears to have lacked. While many companies claim to have invented Late Bottle Vintage category, the earliest known reference to this style of Port can be found in The Wine Society’s 1964 catalogue, which lists Fonseca’s Quinta Milieu 1958 LBV. In 2003 Fonseca was also responsible for the Douro’s first organic Port, and in 2008 Croft Pink was launched, Portugal’s first rosé Port. Most recently, Taylor’s has released a series of 50-year-old single harvest Tawnies from 1963 through to 1967, as well as its 1855 Scion, a pre-phylloxera Tawny priced at £2,500.

POSITIVE ASPECT

“In the space of a decade we have had five major innovations, and that doesn’t count what we and our competitors have done in terms of packaging and the way we communicate our product to consumers. In many ways the Port industry is moving, having been through a profound consolidation as a result of the multi-nationals leaving, and then being left with two family groups, broadly, ourselves and the Symingtons. The positive aspect of that competition is that it’s a bit of an arms race. Who can do better and who can develop more innovative packaging and present better to consumers.

As a result of that competition we have seen enormous progress and change, and if you look at the Port shelf today compared with five or 10 years ago it’s extraordinarily different.”

WORLD OF WINE

Tourism has been another big focus for The Fladgate Partnership. In 2010 Fladgate opened The Yeatman, a five-star hotel in Porto that is currently undergoing a 26-bedroom extension. In 2015 the group opened a visitor centre at Croft’s Quinta da Roêda in the Douro, and last summer a new large-scale Taylor’s visitor centre next door to The Yeatman in Porto. Late last year, Bridge turned his attention to an even bigger project, starting work on a €100 million (£88m) visitor attraction called The

World of Wine. Covering more than 30,000m2, the attraction is being developed on a site in Vila Nova de Gaia on the southern banks of the River Douro, on land currently filled with empty warehouses, just beneath The Yeatman. The planned facility will feature a museum on the history of Porto, a museum on the cork industry, a wine school, a slow-food restaurant and events space, along with nine further restaurants, a retail area, and a fashion and design museum to celebrate the textile industry of northern Portugal. The attraction is expected to open in 2020 and welcome 100 million visitors a year.

Bridge says: “Our objective is to make ambassadors for the city, for the culture, for the food and the wines and for Port, not load them up with bottles that they can lug across the world, but to give them an extraordinary experience that they can share at home. That’s about building an emotional connection, not retail. It’s up to producers to make the best facilities that transmit the values of the brand and create the best-value experience.”

A focus on tourism has also helped Bridge to cast the group’s net more widely across international markets, including Asia, enticing consumers to the region to discover Port for themselves. As Bridge notes: “We sell in 102 countries – it wasn’t that long ago that we were in 50. Globalisation has produced a vast number of new markets and new consumers, because the very word implies that people are travelling. We have seen a rapid explosion in the number of markets buying Port from us and we need to support all of them.”

China is one such market, where a growing middle class with an expanding knowledge of wine is helping to drive wine consumption. Macau also holds appeal, given its historic links with Portugal, having been under Portuguese administration from 1557 to 1999. However, it is the Indian market that Bridge finds interesting for Port.

“The opportunities are enormous in India because there is a habit of people sitting around at the end of a meal and conversing,” he says. “At the moment they drink whisky, but that’s because whisky works well in markets where you have limited refrigerated distribution, as spirits suffer less than wine in that environment, but the occasion is strong.”

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

Describing Port as “the oil of good conversation”, Bridge believes Port could find a home in India, if the challenges of tax and distribution can be overcome.

“In India, people sit down and chat, and that’s a perfect opportunity for Port. It is about human interaction, and Port has a very important part to play in that.”

Outside of Port, Bridge’s activities are numerous, both physical and intellectual. “It’s too easy to get wrapped up in work; you need to keep a broad level of interest,” says Bridge.

His 500-strong collection of ancient drinking vessels is a testament to this belief. Starting with a single Roman cup bought from an antiques dealer in London, the collection now boasts a 6,000BC limestone-carved cup from what was the ‘cradle of civilisation’, now northern Syria.

Once offering a group the chance to drink a 40-year-old Port from the ancient cup, Bridge recalls: “The Port was going round and people were smiling politely and I thought, this is odd, it should be bloody good. It got to me and it was disgusting. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t washed the cup. I had no idea when it had last been washed, it could have been 1,000 years ago.”

Cleanliness aside, what started as a hobby has become a museum that might open in Porto in 2019, with the collection currently being curated. With other interests including scaling Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro, cycling the length of the River Douro and running the length of Hadrian’s Wall, Bridge has earned a reputation as an ‘action man’ – however it’s a label he’s quick to dismiss.

“I tend to grab opportunities and do things,” he says. “People say ‘you climb mountains; you’re an action man’. I’m not an action man. I am a man of action, which is slightly different. I tend to see things and get on with them rather than ignore them, and that probably defines who I am.”

Next year, Bridge will be dusting off his dinner jacket and setting out once again to conquer Mount Everest, after a charity mission to its summit to set a world record for the highest formal dinner party was abandoned mid trek after the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Bridge had packed a 62-year-old bottle of Port for the occasion.

Not one to refuse a challenge, Bridge’s approach to life seems much the same as in business – bold, brave and exploratory.

“These are the things of life,” he concludes. “You set out on a challenge with no knowledge of what’s going to happen and you make the best of what it is, and it’s the same in business, for every member of our team and any other. You are all out there trying to do your best to contribute and who knows what’s going to happen?”

A lot, I would imagine, if Bridge’s enthusiasm, energy and passion for Port and the Douro Valley is anything to go by. After all, there is always another mountain to climb.