In 1636, Nicolau Kopkë moved from Germany’s Hamburg to Portugal in his role as General Consul of the Hanseatic League, a northern European trading block dealing in linen, iron and wine. Kopke’s first bottles of wine were shipped in 1638, and by 1781 the company had purchased vineyards in the Douro Valley, moving from a trading company to an established wine producer. In 1922, three centuries after the company’s foundation, Kopke purchased Quinta de Sao Luiz vineyard, a site regarded by them ‘as the jewel in the crown of the Porto region’. For the last 100 years this impressive terroir has been the cornerstone of Kopke’s winemaking. Since then, Kopke was bought and sold accordingly, and in the 19th century the port house was bought by the Bohane family in London. Kopke is the longest-standing port house. Every bottle is hand-painted by a group of five or six, decorating around 100 bottles an hour. The wax capsule is likewise done by hand. In a world of automation, it is surely a wonderful thing to value craftsmanship like this.