The Big Interview: Rob Symington

Rob Symington speaks to Sarah Neish about tariffs, a shrinking workforce and Douro politics as he becomes joint CEO at Symington Family Estates. In a plot  twist worthy of HBO television drama Succession, Rob Symington donned the CEO cap at Port house Symington Family Estates (SFE) in February, when previous CEO Rupert Symington replaced Johnny Symington as chairman on the latter’s retirement. But that cap had to stretch across two pates, the other belonging to his cousin, Charles, with whom Rob now shares the job. As co-CEOs, each has a different area of focus within the business, with Charles continuing to oversee wine production and Rob taking the lead on more or less everything else (“wine tourism, sustainability, people and culture, and commercial matters”.) However, unlike the warring brood in Succession, the Symington dynasty is far less dysfunctional, with no shortage of genuine affection for one another. “We miss Johnny massively; he’s an excellent people person, and this role is as much about how you’re showing up as it is workload,” 41-year-old Rob tells db.

Ramping up

However, that workload must be ramping up during this significant period of shapeshifting for many Port businesses. As a fifth-generation member of the family company, founded in 1882, Symington suspects that his ancestors’ jaws may have grazed the floor had they witnessed some of the changes the family firm has undergone lately. “My grandfather would be astonished to see the portfolio we have today for Douro still wines,” he says, adding: “We’ve been on a bit of a diversification agenda.” That’s one way to put it. SFE has doubled its still wine business in the last 10 years and is targeting a further 50% growth in that category over the next six years (by 2030). As it stands, around 85% of the business is currently dedicated to Port (including the group’s Graham’s, Cockburn’s, Dow’s and Warre’s brands), with the remaining 15% made up of Portuguese still wines. If the desired growth is achieved, then the gap between the two will narrow substantially. “We want to represent the very best that Portugal has to offer,” explains Symington. Although the nation is already well-known as a red wine-producing country, “we produce some interesting whites at altitude in the Douro”, he adds. For this reason, when SFE does decide to replant, he says: “We will do so at height.”

Mosquito net

A growing emphasis on white wines will serve as a proverbial mosquito net as the buzz about declining red wine consumption continues to amplify. But Symington wants to shift the message away from “cheap and cheerful whites” to high-end Alvarinhos, "which are remarkably good wines”. Indeed, the company is keen to champion two hero white wine regions it has recently moved into: Alentejo and Vinho Verde. Organics are unlikely to play a starring role in SFE’s white wine future, due to the sheer difficulty of growing grapes in the Douro, where about 95% of vineyards are planted on steep terraces. While SFE owns 25 quintas and more than 1,000 hectares of vineyard, only 110ha are currently farmed organically. “The flat, dry part of the valley is where we’re organic,” says Symington. “The cost in terms of tractor passes and just being able to get around the vineyards is exponentially more manageable on the valley floor.” However, he explains that the company is in the process of conducting “trials into regenerative viticulture, including studies into soil health, water retention and more”, the conclusions of which he hopes to see in about “three years from now”.

Challenges in the Douro

By then, he hopes that the Portuguese government will have managed to iron out some of its stickier issues. According to Symington, there are three big challenges currently impacting agriculture and winegrowing in the Douro. “One is climate change adaptation, so responding to the threat of heatwaves, drought, etc, and understanding what constitutes sensible policies around irrigation,” he says.

The second key issue is the rapidly disappearing labour force. “There has been a lot of rural depopulation in Portugal, where people are seeking city living,” Symington explains. “That poses a big challenge for anyone producing wine. I think we’ve lost 30% of the population in the Douro since the turn of the century.” The solution, he believes, is producers “providing better jobs with more security, rather than relying on seasonal workers”. That said, he applauds a recent Portuguese Government initiative whereby Nepalese migrants are offered short-term visas to work in agricultural positions, including vineyards. Regardless of the nationality of seasonal workers, Symington says they’ve got their work cut out for them keeping up with the local Douro residents who haven’t yet left for the city. “We’ve had excellent Ukrainian and Polish workers in the past, who are known for being really tough and hardy, completely stunned by how much work 65-year-old Douro pickers, men and women both, can get done in a day.”

Club Tropicana: Port remains the bedrock of Symington Family Estates

Out-of-date framework

The third and arguably most debilitating issue facing the Douro is the “out-of-date regulatory framework regarding how many grapes can be produced each year, and the price of those grapes,” says Symington. “Historically, the Douro region evolved around Port, so there was a fixed market for Port rates, and the rest was a free market. Now that still wines account for about half of the region’s production, things need to change, and fast.” The high price of Port grapes today is “artificially subsidising still wines”, he says. “If it wasn’t for the higher prices we pay for our Port grapes, then the Douro region wouldn’t be commercially feasible.” It also means that table wine grape growers receive a pittance for their fruit. “It’s a scandal; a serious problem for Douro communities and for the still wine category,” he continues. “Even though we, as a company, benefit from the lower prices for still wine grapes, as a region we are setting ourselves up to fail if things carry on the way they’re going. We are teaching people around the world that Douro wines are cheap, which is not the case.”

Making himself unpopular

Symington says he is prepared to “make himself unpopular in some places” by speaking out about the challenge, including persuading 26 key players in the region to sign an open letter called ‘Douro Deserves Better’, which was published in 2023. ”It would be much easier for us to keep our mouth shut, but we buy from 600 growers, so we’re entwined with the health of these communities.” Possible measures being mooted to restore balance in the region include green harvesting – “something that’s never been done in the Douro before”– in order to limit yields, thereby driving up the quality and prices of still wine grapes. However, Symington is evidently frustrated by the inertia on “both sides” of the debate. “This doesn’t need five or 10 years to action,” he says. “It just needs the political will to do something about it now and the relevant leadership to recognise that no solution is going to be perfect.” Who stands to benefit from keeping the system the way it’s always been? “If you are buying grapes exclusively to produce still wines, then you’re benefitting because you’re paying an artificially low price for those grapes,” Symington says. “So there’s definitely some vested interest [from some parties] in the region.” A further complication is that, with the average vineyard holding in the Douro being a modest 1.5ha, “the idea of limiting yields goes against the sensibilities of farming”, says Symington. So not only is there no consensus from the government, there’s also “little consensus from the farmer side that reform will benefit them”.

English country garden

One place where Symington can more directly influence the pace of change is in the UK. Or Hampshire, to be precise. In November 2023, SFE and wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd jointly acquired English wine producer Hambledon Vineyard for approximately £22.3 million. At the time, SFE said it had decided to buy England’s oldest commercial vineyard “following lengthy analysis of the English sparkling wine category”. It was Rob Symington who spearheaded the SFE team through the acquisition, and he remains in touch with the Hambledon team daily. “We’re very much not a sleeping investment; we want to put Hambledon right at the top of the tree for English wines,” he tells db.

Still waters: but grape prices in the Douro are stirring things up “I love the fact that the South of England can make wines that rival Champagne. The region is consistently producing wines of energy, poise and tension, whereas the Champagne houses are finding it increasingly challenging, when it comes to achieving acidity, to continue making wines in the same style.” One gets the impression that Symington’s connection with Hambledon runs far deeper than a business plan. “It took my family 142 years to start making wines outside of Portugal,” he says. “I love the partnership and come to the UK about six times a year to meet the team.

Management style

”It’s not only SFE’s diversification into still white wines and English sparkling that would shock earlier branches of the Symington family tree. Rob’s management style, too, represents a departure of sorts. “My father’s generation were very operational and hands-on, and there was a deep sense of ‘we’ve got to do it all ourselves’,” he says. “But leadership doesn’t involve doing everyone’s job for them.” He is getting better, he says, at “keeping my nose out where it’s not wanted”. Another piece of the Hambledon puzzle has been taking the time to appreciate the fundamental differences between the English and Portuguese businesses. “English wine has a very different model to Portugal, where our main market is export. English wine is more domestic, a bit like Napa,” says Symington. “So our vision for Hambledon is to have a best-in-class tourism offering and for this to represent 50% of the business by 2030.” In May last year, lender Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance agreed to put up £10m in investment funding to support Hambledon’s tourism push.

Symington has been equally busy in Porto, where he is preparing to cut the ribbon on Matriarca, a three-storey ‘Port townhouse’ which is due to open in June following a €6m investment by SFE. The new venue will include a wine bar, contemporary restaurant and a rooftop wine academy alongside a members’ club area and cocktail bar, where Port will be the star ingredient on show. “The Port category isn’t necessarily that easy to understand from the outside,” he says. “If you want to attract a younger audience – and not only younger, but new consumers generally – then you need to look like you belong in the 21st century. If you look like something your grandfather would drink, you’re only going to get grandfathers drinking it.” It’s an astute recognition that Symington’s own grandfather might have cause to be tremendously proud of.