Christopher Smith, founded a small company to ship Port from the Douro in 1784. Some years later the Woodhouse brothers joined him. Since 1970, Smith Woodhouse has been owned by the Symington family, Port producers since the 19th century. Through the last two hundred years, this small Port company has built a reputation for outstanding Vintage Ports. Smith Woodhouse is a specialist producer of premium quality Ports made primarily from grapes grown in the vineyards of Quinta da Madalena. Rigorous selection standards and the low-yielding old vines of the Madalena vineyard combine to ensure that the quantity of Port bottled each year is very limited but of uncompromising quality.