What is Port
What is Port?
Port is a fortified wine produced only in the demarcated region of the Douro River in Portugal and the terms Port or Porto refer only to these wines. Just as Champagne only comes from the Champagne region of France, with everything else called sparkling wine, so to does Port only come from Portugal. A fortified wine means that brandy has been added to the wine at some point in the fermentation process.
Port is still made the same way and, in most cases, with the same equipment of over 100 years ago. While aging in wood, port wine’s fruity aroma develops through oxidation to create a bouquet of dried fruit, toasting, wood and spices. The aging process adds to its smoothness and the color become increasingly more golden with a greenish tint to the older wines.
Port takes its name from the city of Oporto located at the mouth of the river Douro or the River of Gold. Wine was produced along this river valley from before the Roman occupation and shipped downstream to be exported around the known world. In 1678, England declared war on France and the English navy was large enough to blockade the French ports. This created an instant shortage of wine. Britain was a traditional trading partner and ally of Portugal since 1373 so it was natural that the British looked to Portugal for wine.
Unhappily, wine making was not a serious art in Portugal and the quality the British desired was lacking. So, the British decided to help things out and went to Portugal to improve the winemaking. In order to stablize the raw red wines and stop any fermentation, the British took to adding “a bucket or two of grape brandy” to every barrel shipped to London. This early wine from Porto was not praised and it’s popularity depended more on availability. So, early sales fluctuated with the warming and cooling of the British – French relationship.
The early shipments to London were simply red table wine but, sometime between 1678 and the early 1700′s, someone decided to add that bucket or two of grape brandy earlier in the process stopping further fermentation and producing a wine still sweet, fruity and strong. In 1756, a new company was chartered in Portugal which ended the British monopoly. This company had broad powers to regulate production, fix prices and arbitrate all disputes. This company, the Old Wine Company, defined the wine producing regions and all vineyards and even elderberry trees were uprooted in every other part of Portugal.
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By the mid 1850′s all the major Port producing houses had been established: Warre, Croft, Taylor, Sandeman, Offley, Forrester, Kopke, Van Zeller, Burmester, Graham, Guimareans, Cockburn and Dow.
Port is different because of its above average alcohol content ranging between 19% and 22% in volume.
Ruby – label given to younger wines that display a deep color, fairly fruity and are, on average, 2 years old, usually a blend of several years harvests, does not usually say Ruby on the bottle label
Tawny – blended wines that have spent about 6 years in cask, can vary considerably in quality, some are blend of ruby and white port but the best Tawny Ports have acquired their amber brown or tawny hue from the wood ageing. Flavor is drier and nuttier.
Aged Tawny with an Indication of Age – blended from wines of different years, expressing the nature of the wine as regards the characteristics that are given to it through aging in wood. So, a “20 Year Old” wine has the color, testure, aroma and taste of a wine that has aged in wood for 20 years. By decree, the ages are 10, 20, 30 and even more than 40 years.
Colheita – Dated Port – wines from a single year can be sold after they have aged at least 7 years but most are aged longer. Label indicates the year of bottling and should be drunk within one year of that date. Fairly rare.. These are labeled Dated Port.
White Port – made from white grapes in the same way. Usually sweet and served on the rocks or up as an apeeritif.
Vintage Character – also referred to as Super or Premium Ruby. Blended from several years harvest and aged 4 to 6 years before bottling. Characteristically have more body and fruit than a Tawny but lack the concentration and complexity of a true Vintage Port. Usually sold under brand names like Sandemans Founder’s Reserve, Warre’s Warrior, Grahams 6 Grapes, Fonseca’s Bin 27 or Taylor’s First Estate
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L.B.V. (Late Bottled Vintage) – Port from a single year but that year has been judged to be of excellent quality but not deemed good enough for a Vintage and is aged in wood and bottled between the 4th and 6th year after it is made. Red in color, full-bodied and smooth. Usually more gentle and full-bodied than the vintage Port of the same year. Can throw sediment so carry carefully.
Vintage – wines of superior quality, produced in exceptionally great years from distinct areas or sub-zones within the region. Vintage port is kept in wood for 2 to 3 years before bottling then matured in the bottle for up to 15 to 20 years. Usually very full-bodied and deep-colored. Usually throw sediment so carry carefully. Serve with ceremony and style
Best Vintages : 1994, 1992, 1991, 1985, 1977, 1970, 1963, 1955, 1948, 1935, 1931, 1927 and 1912. Port can be very sweet, sweet, semi-dry, dry or extra dry. Sweetness is determined by when and how the wine maker interrupts the fermentation process.
Fortified Wines
Port, Sherry and Madeira
Sherry
“Fortified” means a distilled spirit is added to the wine. Some assume all fortified wines are sweet. Not true. Many are but there are many dry versions, too. In general, dry starts a meal and sweet ends it with foods as well as fortified wines.
Fortified wines usually have more body than regular wines because they range in alcohol content from 13 to 20 percent. This creates a structure which can stand up at dessert time. Chocolate’s intensity and oiliness challenges standard wines but can be easily overcome by the fuller bodied fortified wines such as late-bottled Vintage Port or a Malmsey Maderia.
Dry Maderias such as those made from sercial or verdelho seem perfect for soups.
Fino Sherry and its cousin Manzanilla usually accompany Spanish style tapas.
Sherry is divided into Fino and Oloroso. Fino is always dry (usually) and Oloroso is always sweet (usually). Fino aged long enough is bottled as Amontillado and is often sweet. Oloroso is really almost always sweet but there is Lustau’s version: think roasted walnuts.
Wine chosen for Oloroso is fortified to about 18 percent alcohol and left to age in barrels.
Wine chosen for Fino is fortified to about 15 percent and the barrel won’t be filled to the top. Soon the empty space above the wine is filled with a yeast growth called the ‘flor’, Spanish for flower. But, it looks like pond scum…. The purpose is pretty, however: it protects the wine from oxygen and adds a nutty, almond-like character. It is this light, almost delicate, character which is a favorite. No small feat at 15 percent alcohol!
A version of Fino called Manzanilla has been aged in the Portugese coastal town of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The nearby ocean feeds the flor like nothing else. The flor can grow here to a half foot tall or more!
Sometimes the growth of the flor is made to seem mysterious and miraculous. Actually, it is very simple: the barrels have previously held flor-laden Sherry. The barrels are place near open windows where the ocean breezes feed to flor. And, the flor grows because 15 percent alcohol allows it to while 18 percent added to Oloroso kills it.
As soon as the flor dies, the Fino Sherry begins to change. It gains in richness and becomes an Amantillado. Based on the story so far, Amantillado should be dry. Oh, if it were only that simple…. By tradition, some Amantillados are slightly sweet because a sweet wine is added made from moscatel and Pedro Ximinez grapes (PX grapes)
To make things even more complicated, instead of the sweet wine, sometimes unfermented sweet grapes will be added. And, sometimes, the grape juice is cooked down to a sweet paste which is added. AND, SOMETIMES, a small amount of that sweet paste is added to the wine to make the wine seem older and richer than it might actually be.
Olorosos, the great Sherry dessert wines, start life dry. But it is aged for years, sometimes decades, in barrels and then the sweet grapes or sweet paste are added and the wine gains outrageous sweetness as well as a dried fruit character and complexity.
For all its history, something new is afoot: Sherry has two new designations VOS and VORS.
VOS – Very Old Sherry – blended from wines not less than 20 years old
VORS – Very Old Rare Sherry – blended from wines not less than 30 years old
Sherry unlike Ports and Madeira are hardy stock and can be opened and consumed over weeks.
PORT
Old vintage Port doesn’t live as long as Madeira. Vintage Port needs twenty or thirty years to be come drinkable but, once ready, it needs to be consumed. The greatest Ports may only offer their greatness for a few hours. That fragility has more in common with wines that are not fortified. Indeed, some bars in Portugal do not pour vintage Port by the glass for this reason.
However, just like the rest of this story, there is ‘on the other hand’. Not all Port is that fragile. Vintage Port accounts for only 3% of all Port wines. A vintage Port aged twenty or more years is likely to be as fragile as any table wine of similar age.
Vintage port is aged in barrels like most red table wine – usually about a year and a half in barrels before they are bottled. Most Port spends much more time in barrels. Ports are just a complicated as Sherries. There are two broad categories: Ruby and Tawny. (Sound like dancers in a strip club?)
Ruby means it is ruby in color. Tawny Port is light brown to light orange in color.
Under Ruby, there are Vintage Ports, Late Bottled Vintage Ports and Single Quinta Ports.
Vintage Ports are aged 18 to 30 months in barrels before bottling.
Late Bottled Vintage Ports are aged 4 to 6 years in barrels before bottling making these softer and rounder than Vintage Ports and ready to drink upon release.
Single Quinta means single vineyard and is aged just like LVB Ports. The difference is that LVB Port is made from a mix of vineyards while Single Quinta comes from just one. The idea is that great LVB Ports are made only in great years, blended from several excellent vineyards. In a less than stellar year, individual vineyards may bottle on their own. It will age more quickly, cost less and offer less complexity that LVB.
Tawny Ports are the popular Ports in Portugal. Typically, they are sold by age – 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. The 10 and 20 year Ports offer a complex interlay of fruitiness and nutty, aged character. The 30 year versions are usually less interesting.
Now, the 10 year, 20 year and 30 year thing is a little misleading. There is no guarantee that the Port is actually as old as the label indicates. The 10 year old might be only 8 year old, with a little 12 year old thrown in. The idea is to match a pre-existing style and is less concerned with being able to tell someone the bottle contains a certain percentage of this vintage. Rather, the blender wants to be able to say that this 10 year old Tawny Port tastes just like the one made last year.
Each Port house fashions their Tawny Ports as a balancing act between young fruit and aged nuttiness. With 10 year old Tawnies, fruit tends to dominate. With 20 year old, the nuts seem to come through strongly.
Madeira
Madeira is usually an extravagant dessert wine. But, as confusing as Sherry or Port, Madeiras can be dry as well. Sercial and Verdelho are the grapes most associated with dry Madeiras and can be lemon tart and as racy as a green apple. Terrentez, bastardo, malvasia and especially bual and malmsey grapes are rich and sweet and provide the basis for sweet Madeiras.
Vintage Maderia can be opened and last for months, years and even decades then enjoyed glass after glass. That is not normal wine! What makes Madeira Madeira? The answer is Madeira.
Madeira is an island off the coast of Africa. Wines made from grapes grown on the volcanic soils of the island have an unnerving amount of acidity. It is that acidity that makes the wine eternal.
Madeira is a fortified wine that is then warmed up. The first exports were warmed by the long ocean voyage across the center of the globe and the warm equatorial temperatures. Often Madeira lies in barrels that are never topped up or filled to account for evaporation. For all wines but Madeira, topping up prevents the wines from spoiling due to oxygen exposure. With Madeira, however, this seems to bring forth even more fruitiness.
This wine is amazing. Once opened, a bottle of great Madeira lasts forever. What could be done to it that hasn’t already been done. Exposed to heat and oxygen, it seems to thrive. An old bottle of vintage Madeira is rarely a risky proposition. Purchasing a bottle of 1900 Vintage Madeira then selling a 2 ounce glass for $75.00 would be a great investment since theMadeira would last the year or more it would take to sell all of it.
