On a chilly and gray January afternoon in 2003, Ryan and I arrived into the historic Oporto train station bubbling with anticipation and excitement. Our limbs rather sore from sitting for hours in the same position, we begrudgingly put our large backpacks onto our shoulders, and like to old creaky dolls, emerged out station into the lobby and face to face with the Gothic and mysterious Sandeman logo fixed just to the left of the exit doors. Although a rather eerie image to encounter on a drizzly and cold winter’s day, it set the mood for our visit in Oporto as city bubbling with history, legends and secrets.

The undisputed international symbol of Sandeman - the wide-brimmed Spanish caballero’s hat and Portuguese student’s black cape - was commissioned in 1928 by George Massiot Brown. Although I have looked far and wide for more of George Massiot Brown’s work, it appears that this single piece had been one of his most legendary, as well as a symbol which Port lovers around the world have associated with quality Port wine.

The company was founded in 1790 by George Sandeman, a rather determined and innovative young Scotsman, who with his father’s financial backing, began selling port and sherry from Tom’s Coffee House in London. Just a few years later, George was not only carrying the legendary sherries of James Duff of Cadiz (now, Duff Gordon), but also shipping and bottling one of the first Sandeman Vintage ports - Sandeman 1790. After his death in 1841, Sandeman was passed into the trusting hands of his nephew, George Glas Sandeman, who diversified the company’s holdings to include both insurance and the export of linen and textiles. And unlike other Port companies who were established around the same …