Stormonth, Tait & co.

[JacobH]

In William Todd’s A Handbook of Wine and Port: How to Buy, Serve, Store, & Drink It, Todd provides a short list of ‟The Best-Known Oporto Shippers”. It includes a ‟Tait, Stormouth & co.” which is obscure to me and which I was wondering if anyone knew anything about.

AHB has transcribed the full list from the Handbook which is in the Reference Section.

My original question was:

Most of [the shippers listed by Todd] (even Dixon) still exist, at least in name, with the names of others (e.g. Van Zellar or Morgan) still being familar. But I had never heard of Tait, Stormouth & Co. before and can find almost no record of it on the 'net. Does anyone know anything about it?

Having had a look more widely, Charles Sellers, in Oporto, Old and New wrote:

Stormonth, Tait & co.

The Senior partner in this firm is the nephew of Lord Stormonth Darling one of the principal Judges in Scotland. Mr Tait lived for about twelve years in Oporto on behalf of Messrs. Robertson Bros. & Co., to which firm he was admitted partner in 1882, and in the London house in January, 1892; in October, 1897, the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent.

Mr. Tait’s impressions of Oporto do credit to his judgment. It is a place, he says, where you can enjoy life in a fine climate surrounded by all the comforts of Scotland or England. While there he took a prominent part in all the athletic sports, and rowed, played cricket and lawn tennis to his heart’s content. While at Lisbon he had the honour of playing tennis with Don Carlos. He also seems to have entered into the spirit of our wild mountain shooting, not only in the Douro, but also on the more level ground of Almeiojo. It may be truthfully said that there are no preserves in Portugal, excepting the royal ones, and they are not of much account. But if a man be a keen sportsman and up to working and walking for his birds, there is plenty of shooting to be had. Mr. Tait like all other Scotchmen, likes Portugal because its bold scenery reminds him of Scotland, especially so the Douro.

(Emphasis added for DRT’s enjoyment!). What is curious about this is that if Mr Tait was admitted to the Stormonth partnership in 1892 and it was dissolved in 1897 then would not give Stormonth Tait much chance to establish itself under that name, especially not to justify its inclusion in William Todd’s list in 1926. Equally, I wonder why Todd describes it as ‟Tait, Stormouth & co.”, with both a misspelling and the partners’ names around the wrong way? One could understand if he was listing all the shippers, but it is only a short list. Very curious.

Looking elsewhere, I can find only one reference to this shipper which is that on the 26th June 2007 Bonhams (in sale 15231) sold a bottle of ‟Stormonth Tait Discovery Port”, for £264 inclusive.

243 SCOTT (ROBERT FALCON) - PORT WINE
'Stormonth Tait "Discovery" Port Wine Shipped by Stormonth Tait Co., Oporto... the only port wine selected by the Antarctic Expedition for the use on board the "Discovery" and the relief vessel "Morning"', a full bottle of port, cork intact with lead seal, 2 printed labels (title as above, and 'Also Supplied to The Shackleton Rowett Expedition S.S. "Quest", 1921"), height of bottle 300mm. Estimate: £200-400. *£220*

I hope Bonham’s will not mind me reproducing a picture of the bottle:

image001.jpg (75.12 KiB) Viewed 5030 times

It appears that the bottle was bought by the Dutch Wijn Antiquariaat who are now selling it as a colheita for £395. The bottle looks rather modern to me, especially with the selo. It also must be a commemorative bottle based on the comment on the label and the commemorative box. This, in turn, raises two questions: i) if Stormonth Tait was wound up in 1897 how did it supply the Shackleton expedition in the 20s? and ii) when was this bottle produced and by whom?

Has anyone else come across this shipper or know anything about it? I appreciate this is a small by-way in the history of Port, but perhaps a diverting one!

[Christian]

Hi Jacob:
I looked through some of my books, and George Robertson lists in his book "Port" (3rd revised edition 1992) in the appendix "Vintage Ports and Their Shippers 1869-1987" the following vintages:
"Stormont Tait 1896, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1920, 1922, 1927". Andre L. Simon mentions exactly the same vintages from 1896 to 1912 in his book "Wine and Spirits" (1919), however, he refers to "Stormonth Tait".
There is a mentioning of the "Stormont Tait 1917" as "light luncheon port" in the March 2005 edition of "Food & Wine" - however, this is the only reference that I found for that year, and I don't know how credible that source is.
I found a small advertisement in "Het Centrum", a Dutch newspaper from September 11, 1909, advertising red port from Stormonth Tait & Co, Oporto. It is mentioned that this company is "Hofleverancier v. den Koning van Portugal" - which (I believe) means that the company provided the King of Portugal officially with port.
There is some confusion about the name... Stormont or Stormonth? I stumbled over the following Sherry label... which might or might not be the same company that ships also the port:

[JacobH]

Hi Christian; thanks for that post which certainly sheds some light on the situation.

From your post, I wonder if I misread Sellers and what actually happened was that Mr Tait was a partner in Robertson Brothers until 1887 at which point he left to found Stormonth Tait? That would roughly coincide with the list of declared vintages in those two books.

Having a connection with Jerez and the Sherry trade is certainly not unexpected for a Port producer in that period: look at Croft or Sandeman, so I imagine Stormonth Tait is probably the right spelling.

What I am curious about is what happened to the shipper after 1927; that bottle of Discovery Port looks, to me, much younger than that which would suggest they were bought by another company who inherited their naming rights. Perhaps, though, if they were making a "light luncheon Port" there wasn't thought to be very much worth in their brand-name.

[giles]

I have just acquired a bottle at auction of the Stormonth, Tait & co. which is original 1920's bottlin rather than the later version sold at Bonhams. More than happy to post a picture if anyone still interested..Giles

[JacobH]

I have just acquired a bottle at auction of the Stormonth, Tait & co. which is original 1920's bottlin rather than the later version sold at Bonhams. More than happy to post a picture if anyone still interested..Giles

Yes, please!

[jdaw1]

I have just acquired a bottle at auction of the Stormonth, Tait & co. which is original 1920's bottlin rather than the later version sold at Bonhams. More than happy to post a picture if anyone still interested..Giles

Oooh yes please. Very much so. Front and back labels please.