| The Burmester
Company, originally established in 1730, has especialized
since 1750 in the production and export of Port Wines. The
name Burmester comes from "Burgmeester", an important
civic position held by the family during the Middle Age in
Moelln, a small German city in the south of Luebeck.
To escape the continuous
religious wars which ravaged Continental Europe during the
XVIth
century, some members of the family must have fled to England,
as it is from this branch of the family that the founder
of the Company came to Portugal in 1730, settling here and
establishing, in association with the Englishman John Nash,
the firm Burmester, Nash & CIA.
The Napoleonic invasions at the beginning of the XIXth
century forced the brothers Frederick and Edouard Burmester, owners of the Company, with
offices in London and Oporto, to seek refuge in London, being the Company acquired then by
the well known merchant Manoel de Clamouse Browne.
On the 13th December,
1834, Johann Wilhelm Burmester arrived in Oporto to work
in the Company . In the year of 1861, he became the sole
owner of the firm, the name of which changed to J.W.Burmester
& CIA.
On his death in 1885, the firm passed to his son,
Gustav Adolf Burmester, married to Maria Henriqueta Leite Guedes, who belonged to a
respected family of the upper Douro region.
Some of his grandchildren
are nowadays associate members and directors of this two
centuries old firm, giving their best to carry on the family
traditions by maintaining the quality of the Port Wines
kept in the Burmester lodges.
|
