The Fladgate Partnership, which owns vintage port brands Taylor's and Fonseca, has now agreed a deal to buy the bulk of rival firm Real Companhia Velha.

This deal between the two companies is worth approximately £30 million (£18.6 million), and concerns the acquisition of more than one million square feet of real estate.

Assets included on the land are offices, cellars and bottling facilities Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the Douro River from Oporto.

Fladgate chief executive officer said the purchase will help the firm develop, primarily by moving bottling away from the restrictive narrow streets of central Vila Nova de Gaia.

"This is part of the strategic plan that I put in place some years ago to reorganise the company, placing the right assets in the right place: more Port storage next to the wineries in the Douro [and] bottling lines outside the historic area," he told Decanter.

Dominic Symington, executive director of the Symington Family Estates, recently suggested that port needs to lose its formal image if it is to compete for a new generation of drinkers.