Sandeman Porto

This guide to Sandeman Porto begins with the caped, unnamed 'Don' who has fronted the port wine brand for nearly a century despite never actually existing, then rewinds to 1790, when a young Scottish trader named George Sandeman borrowed three hundred pounds and opened a London coffee-house stall on nothing but a handshake. It follows the firm's move to a Vila Nova de Gaia lodge already aging since the 1790s, where more than two thousand casks still rest, and the Scottish artist who invented the Don's look in 1928. You'll pick up the smell of oak and old wine as you step into the cellar behind him.