Bruce Duncan Guimaraens

BRUCE DUNCAN GUIMARAENS (1935-2002), port wine maker

Bruce Guimaraens was born in Portugal, the great-grandson of Manuel Pedro Guimaraens who founded Fonseca Guimaraens in the 1820s. By 1840 it had become the second largest exporter of port wines. The family firm merged with Taylor, Fladgate and Yeatman in 1948. From 1961, Bruce Guimaraens was head of the Taylor Fonseca group, retiring in 1989, but he carried on making wines until 1995. After Abingdon School Guimaraens served in Ghana with the Gold Coast Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force, from 1953 to 1956 as a lieutenant seconded from the Royal Berkshire Regiment. When he left the Army, he joined the family business beginning his formal training under Richard and Stanley Yeatman and later Dorothy Guimaraens. He became a full partner in the firm in 1961, assuming responsibility for winemaking and vineyard management.