Graham’s 1890 Port Wine Lodge

Rua Rei Ramiro, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

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Graham’s 1890 Port Wine Lodge

Rua Rei Ramiro, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

Firm

Luís Loureiro Arquitecto

YEAR

2013

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

The rehabilitation project of
the W & J Graham’s Lodge (Port Wine Cellars), in Vila Nova de Gaia, sought
to create new uses for the exisiting building as well as to revitalize its exisiting
utilization, adapting it to current requirements whilst safeguarding the
structure’s coherence, always mindful of its principal function – that of a
working Port lodge, where wines are stored for ageing.

The building is located in
the western limit of the old quarter of Vila Nova de Gaia, abutting the hill
where the castle once stood. To its rear there is a well-consolidated and
compact urban residential area and the Graham’s lodge is thus the last building
on the western perimeter of the old quarter. Amongst all the lodges open to
visitors, the Graham’s lodge is furthest from the river, a fact which affords
it a commanding view over the Douro River.

Facing the lodge is the Campo
Belo Manor with its chapel and surrounding area (which has protected status),
namely the gardens that, in conjunction with the Graham's lodge, places this
section of Rei Ramiro Street in a unique urban and landscape context.
The building itself occupies an area of
approximately 11,500m2 and 14,500m2 is the total area of construction. The
rehabilitation involved, to varying degrees, the entire building and 3.200m2
were specifically subject to an integral intervention.
The
Rehabilitation

The tour programme allows the
building to be visited, following an integrated circuit, from the Visitor
Centre’s entrance/reception right through to its conclusion (marked by the
restaurant) and taking in the museum, lodge, tasting room, shop and wine bar.
It is also possible to use/visit specific sections individually — for instance,
accessing the shop or wine bar — without having to complete the whole visit.

The overriding concern in the
building’s renovation was to preserve its functionality as a working Port
lodge, whilst at the same time upgrading the sections open to visitors and
creating new leisure facilities. The underlying premise of the
rehabilitation project was based primarily on the adaptation of the structure
of the building. The structuring of the principal sections was guided by the
need to preserve as far as possible the overall original recognisable outline
of the building, and involved a reorganization of the functioning sections and
eliminating the ‘disfunctional’ elements that were present in the building. The
principal areas, working and visitable, have separate entrances and are laid
out in such a way as to allow their functioning independent of one another.

Lodge and Vintage Cellars

The intervention in these
areas was selective and essentially corrective of some aspects of the lodge
interior and in the improvement of the visiting conditions therein. In terms of
the infrastructures, there was large-scale renovation, entailing the removal of
all juxtaposed elements, which had diminished the quality of the space, burying
them in the pavement and thus placing them underground.

As part of the project we
have maintained the traditional earthen floors in a large part of the lodge,
and also extended them to cover a sizeable area, replacing a concrete floor,
which we demolished and which had been built in the second half of the 20th century.
This traditional earthen floor is a natural cooling mechanism; when hot east
winds blow from Spain (just a few weeks each year), the earth floors are
sprinkled with water, thus lowering the overall lodge temperature, further
safeguarding the balanced and continuous maturation of the wines and upholding
a tradition of more the 300 years in the Gaia Port Lodges.

Visiting Circuit

The rehabilitation included
the creation of a museum; the defining of the visiting circuits inside the
lodge; renovation of the tasting room and the creation of new tasting areas
(for the general public or specialized tastings); substantial upgrading of the
shop to increase the range of products on offer and the creation of new
restaurant services through the creation of a restaurant and wine bar.

The visitors’ reception was
moved to a new location and this required the complete refurbishment of an area
that had until then been used as a storage facility and which from an
architectural point of view was featureless. The aim was to improve the
visiting circuit, clearly separating the entrance and exit areas for visitors.
Visits now begin in the lodge’s highest level and are concluded in the lodge’s
substantial terraced veranda, which enjoys unmatched views of the Douro River and
the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia.

At reception, visitors will
find a welcome desk and a spacious area where they can gather and wait in
preparation for their tour of the Port lodge. This airy hall is laid out in a
way that allows visitors to pause and rest upon their arrival and has ready
access to the museum area and the small auditorium.

The museum is intended as a
point where visitors can become acquainted with the history of Port, of the
Symington family and of Graham’s (with their wines and vineyards — ‘Quintas’ — in the Douro). On display are
interesting artefacts, various relevant objects, documents, old bottles and
other elements, which place into context for the visitor the heritage and
values of Port.

The history of the two
families behind Graham’s, the Symingtons and the Grahams, is revealed through a
two-hundred year timeline, illustrating moments, objects and stories that mark
the company’s success; Winston Churchill’s invoices for acquiring Graham’s
Port, thank you letters from President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II,
letters dated from 1916 written by young members of the Symington family who
fought in WW I in the trenches, the Patek Philippe watch that belonged to a
Queen of Portugal in the 19th century.

In the small auditorium,
visitors may view a brief informative film, which touches on all aspects of the
making of Graham’s Ports, through both an historical and modern day
perspective.

Simultaneous with the
relocated, new reception facilities described above, the principal access for
vehicles was also changed and is now through an entrance that was little used
until now, namely through the Rua do Agro, instead of the Rua Rei Ramiro. The
aim was to improve the circulation of cars and passenger coaches within the
lodge site complex, all vehicles exiting at the Rua Rei Ramiro, thus avoiding
two-way movement of vehicles inside the property. It therefore became necessary
to build a new guard gate at this new entrance point and to renovate the
surrounding area in order to bring it up to the same level of presentation as
the remaining parts of the site and buildings.

Passenger coaches enter the
property and leave visitors on the inner access road, alongside the new
principal entrance and then return only when the time comes to collect their
passengers at the end of their visit. Besides this access point it is still
possible to enter the site through the various entrance points still in
existence around the property, including the erstwhile main entry gate on the
Rua Rei Ramiro.

One level down from the
reception area, visitors descend a flight of steps to enter the Port lodge,
housing several thousand barrels of maturing wine. This is a fully functional,
working lodge where visitors can learn how Port is aged in cask, surrounded by
the imposing lodge setting, and where they can hear about the Douro vineyards,
the wines’ birthplace and then complete the lodge circuit with a visit to the
Vintage Port cellars where they view Graham’s renowned Vintage Ports, from the
19th century right up to the most recent – the 2011 Vintage Port.

Following the lodge visit and
all they have learnt there, visitors have the opportunity to enjoy a tasting of
Graham’s extensive range of Ports in one of the several tasting rooms; the
principal tasting room, the Vintage Room or the Baptism Room.

The Shop

The retail area is located
between the tasting rooms and the restaurant. This section also has direct
access from the exterior. It is fitted with modular units to display the range
of wines produced by the company as well as other accessory products. Each
module was designed in such a way as to value the products’ presentation and to
allow the shopper direct contact with (and ready access to) the bottles. At the
exit point there is a payment area, well equipped to facilitate the shopping
experience.

Wine Bar and VINUM Restaurant

Alongside the shop, visitors
can enter the Wine Bar that has direct views to the inside of the lodge as well
as direct access on to the adjacent terrace. This area was created to enable
visitors to enjoy an aperitif or a wine by the glass from the range produced by
the Symington family and other producers.

The restaurant enjoys
magnificent views over the Douro River and into the interior of the lodge and
two of its interior facings are composed of a custom-built, glass-panelled,
refrigerated drinks’ storage unit (which doubles as a screen and as a large
bottle display) and, at the opposite end, the kitchen’s self-contained grill
facility. The restaurant’s spatial layout is such that it extends, as an open
space, towards the wine bar and shop.

The restaurant aims to
combine the rich gastronomic traditions of northern Portugal with the best
seafood offered by the neighbouring Atlantic Ocean, to serve with an extensive
range of fine wines. The new restaurant places emphasis on the careful
selection of the best producers and farmers to ensure the supply of the
choicest, most savoury ingredients, daily delivery of fresh seafood from the
nearby Matosinhos fishmarket and in the choice of association with specialists
in the area of haut-cuisine: Sagardi. Vinum aims to become a gastronomic
reference point, bringing together the best of traditional northern Portuguese
cuisine with a contemporary, international touch. It will strive to assert itself
as one of the most sought after restaurants for all those who visiting or
living in the greater Porto area.

Astride the restaurant’s main frontage, the terrace
commands superb views over the Douro River and so as to enhance it, we decided
to maintain whilst reformulating the existing exterior vine trellis, suspended
from a pergola structure. In order to achieve this we had to find the correct
balance with the refurbished façade of the building whilst also safeguarding
the views of the patrons from the restaurant’s interior. Mindful of the
desirability of a year-round usage of the restaurant terrace and to amplify the
magnificent views, which it affords, we proposed the creation of a
non-permanent structure, independent of the original building and which would
not incur it any damage. Accordingly, rather than advancing with irreversible
modifications to the building, such as demolishing sections of the façade or
disfiguring it in any way, which could compromise its original appearance, it
was decided instead to commission a building in wood and glass, separate from
the main building and with as few points of contact with it as possible.

Following careful study as to the best way of closing
the terrace, the solution proposed was a structure composed of a wooden
framework (vertical supports and spans), supporting glass windos, doorways and
a roof. From an architectural standpoint the building projects additional
volume from the original lodge structure, standing as a separate ‘autonomous’
construction that does not compromise the architectural balance of the original
building. The transparency of this building, its scale and its presence
relative to the main lodge building, mean that the latter’s original façade is
always recognizable, preserving its appearance and scale. Furthermore, the aim
was to accommodate this structure underneath the vine trellis, in such a way as
to ensure visual harmony between the old lodge building and the surrounding
landscape.

Construction
Systems
The rehabilitation of a building
of this nature always poses challenges with regard to restoration and
conservation, among which we would highlight the following:1.
Replacement of rafter/beam headings that are in a
poor state of conservation with ‘prosthetic’ wooden headings, similar to the original
ones.2.
Replacement of rack beams in poor condition with new
ones, made from wood similar to the original old Riga.3.
Replacement of the lining and padding, placement of
insulation panels in all the ceilings in all areas subject to renovation.4.
Reinforcement of the foundation brackets of the cast
iron columns. 5.
Resetting of the exterior mortars in the surfaces
under renovation and their replacement with waterproof aerated lime mortars (from
D. Fradique / Fradical). The building still has some Portland type cement
mortars over some of its surfaces. Bearing in mind the good performance of
waterproof aerated lime mortar, these existing Portland type cement mortars
will be replaced by the former in future renovations.6.
Painting of the façades with lime-based/silicate
paints with an adequate permeability to water vapour.7.
Restoration, treatment and painting of cast iron
columns.
In terms of the infrastructures we would highlight the
work done in sorting and streamlining decades of infrastructure ‘add-ons’
deemed necessary for the building’s functioning, such as cabling, open air
water conveyance channels, intrusion detection systems (alarms), water taps,
electricity sockets attached to the cast iron columns, etc. We integrally
rebuilt the water supply infrastructure, domestic, industrial as well as
rain-bourne waste water drainage systems, power supply and data networks, as
well as other ‘soft’ networks. These infrastructure networks were buried
underground rendering them invisible and even the access points are out of
sight. The lodge’s lighting was also improved.
In summary, the rehabilitation aimed to value the
original building, establishing a hierarchy for its varied uses, in accordance
with the building itself and its structure, taking great care when introducing
new building solutions so as to maintain the harmony and balance of the
original building, without subjecting it to irreparable damage to its founding
elements.

Product Spec Sheet

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Luís Loureiro

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Graham’s 1890 Port Wine Lodge

Rua Rei Ramiro, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

Graham’s 1890 Port Wine Lodge

Rua Rei Ramiro, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team