Port: The Other Red Wine

Here it is folks, your Port Wine Primer. Admit it, you are curious as to what makes a bottle of Port tick. You know that it is sweet, strong and delicious, but do you know why? What makes Port different from other dessert and still wines? Or why it is such an integral part of the wine world that Great Britain would risk the open seas during war time to get it?

Through the centuries of Port production there has been the constant of British admiration. Through wars, embargoes, blockades and vine disease, the love of a good Port has always remained. This is a key factor in the Port that we enjoy today, though France now leads the world in Port wine consumption.

A brief history of Port wine

As early as the 1500s wines from Portugal were shipped north to England and Europe. It was common for shippers to add a bucket of Brandy to stabilize the wine for the long journey, though the wine remained light, fruity and dry. The sweet and unctuous drink that we have today would not be created for another 100 years or so. In 1678 Britain declared war on France and blockaded her ports, thus depriving the British of the French wine that they regularly enjoyed. The search for a new and reliable source of wine spurred the wine industry in Portugal into tremendous growth.

The wine however, was a considerable step down in quality. This inspired many a British company to set up branch offices in Portugal to oversee the production of the wine. It was found that the grapes further inland along the Duoro River produced a wine of superior quality, weight and intensity, but also high levels of tannin and astringency. To soften the wine, Brandy was added to the wine before fermentation was complete, thus leaving high levels of residual sugar and a level of alcohol somewhat higher than that of still wines.

Ah, but what a creation this was! Rich, seductive and stunningly intense, the beauty that is Port wine as we know it was born. The Duoro valley proved to be a perfect place for growing intensely flavored grapes. Very hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, the Duoro was a very tough place, the landscape a turbulent mix of rugged mountains and rocky terrain, with very little soil to speak of. Through painstaking measures terraces were hewn into the rock walls. The schist was pulverized into a light covering of soil spread above the bare rock. Heroic efforts changed the face of the land, all for the bounty of the grape.

Since then all that has happened are more wars, phylloxera, a terrible scandal involving sugar and elderberries which led to the uprooting of every elderberry tree in Northern Portugal, and the Golden Age of Port wine. Skip ahead to the present, and we have more styles of Port at higher levels of quality than ever before, all the while retaining and honoring the old ways and traditions. Traditions such as trodding, where the grapes are crushed under foot, may be less common today, but not unheard of.

The short version is that Port is made from grapes grown on the banks of Duoro valley from as many as 90 permitted varieties, though only five different grapes are common: Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão and the best of the best- Touriga Nacional. After the grapes are harvested, crushed and fermented, the wine is shipped west down the Douro River on traditional port boats called Barcos Rabelos to the Picturesque Oporto, the city by the sea that is home to the many Port Houses created over the centuries. The Houses are centered in the Vila Nova de Gaia on the other side of the Duoro, across from Oporto proper and one of the best photo opportunities in all of Europe.

After maturing in cask for one year, the wines are blended into many different bottlings and styles. Generally speaking, all Port wine can be divided into two categories: Those aged in bottle and those aged in wooden cask. Cask aged Ports spend a long period of time in wood, where they lose much of their deep color taking on a tawny hue, and have notes of caramel, vanilla, toffee, smoke and cinnamon. Bottle aged Ports are bottled after just a short time in wood and thus retain much of their color, as well as heavy and rich notes of dark chocolate, dark fruits, violets and earth. Bottle aged ports usually require long periods of time after bottling to tame their fiery tannins.

The different styles of Port

Bottle aged Ports

White- Though not as common as red Ports, white Port can be quite enjoyable and refreshing as an aperitif. The sweetest version is known as Lagrima.

Ruby- The most basic and least expensive of all the Port varieties, Ruby is often a blend of wines from several different vintages. Ruby is often lighter and lower in tannin than other Port styles, and makes for an easy-drinking blend. It is common for different Port houses to sell their Ruby with a proprietary name, preferring to emphasize the “house style” than the Ruby moniker.

Vintage Character- Wine of a slightly higher quality, that is usually aged from 4-6 years in barrel before it is bottled. The time in wood is not long enough to make the wine a Tawny, but it does soften the wine enough that they are best consumed soon after bottling.

Crusted- So named for the sediment or crust that forms in bottle as the wine ages, Crusted Ports can be a great alternative to the more expensive Vintage Ports. They are often of a high level of quality, and are capable of aging gracefully for up to a decade.

Late Bottled Vintage- A single-vintage Port of a higher quality than both Ruby and Vintage Character. These wines are usually produced in years of high quality that are just a step below the greatness of a declared vintage. Though a relatively recent addition to the Port lineup, Late Bottled Vinatage Ports, or LBVs as they are commonly known have become quite popular, and can be a delicious addition to the end of any meal. Less expensive and with a shorter lifespan than the great Vintage Ports, LBVs as best consumed now, rather than later.

Single Quinta Vintage- Since 1986 Port houses have been allowed to produce wines in the Duoro Valley instead of shipping them to Oporto. This has created a new category of wines, the Single Quinta, or farm. These are wines that hail from a single vineyard and a single vintage, and can be of outstanding quality. Usually these wines contain a high percentage of Touriga Nacional, the intense and robust grape of the Duoro that produces the best wines.

Vintage Port- The best of the best. These wines hail from the best sites and can only be produced in the greatest vintages. Two to three declared vintages per decade is common. These wines are extremely long-lived, with great examples requiring several decades to reach maturity. A common tradition in Great Britain is to offer a bottle of young Vintage Port to a friend upon the birth of a child, knowing that the wine may eventually be enjoyed by both generations far in the future. Vintage Ports can be quite tannic and tough in their youth, but as they evolve they provide a level of power, weight, substance, grace and intensity that few wines on earth can match. The first Vintage Port was declared in 1734.

Cask aged Ports

Tawny- A Tawny Port is a blend of several different vintages that spends a longer period of time aging in cask, usually at least six years. The color fades to a lovely tawny hue, and the flavor profile changes from dark, chocolaty and fruity, to a lighter feel packed with caramel, toffee, vanilla, orange peel and many other flavors, including a slightly nutty character the wine acquires through oxidation while in barrel.

Aged Tawny- The best tawny wines are aged in wood cask for an extremely long time, often labeled as 20, 30 or even 40-year-old Tawny Ports. Though this is a misnomer, as the wine is often rated by the Instituto do Vinho do Porto (IVP) as tasting like a wine that is 20, 30 or 40 years old, the wines are wonderfully elegant, refined and graceful. Whatever their true age may be, they are some of the best dessert wines in the world.

Colheita- A Colheita is a Tawny Port from a single vintage. They are quite rare, so if you find one in your local wine shop, act fast, because the chance may not soon come again. Usually great care and quality goes into the production of Colheitas, often rivaling that of a Vintage Port.


Port Wine and food

There is a wide range of foods that can add to your Port wine experience. Most often these are desserts, with Tawnies being a perfect match for items such as Crème Brulee, Apple Tart Tatain and even Pecan Pie. Anything that contains nuts, cream, apricots, peaches, caramel or toffee will work fairly well, with more adventurous sorts swearing that sweet potatoes and triple cream cheeses are the way to go.

With Vintage and other bottle aged Ports a wide range of chocolate and dark fruit desserts can be a wonderful pairing. Blackberry Pie, Dark Chocolate Mousse, even ripe black raspberries and cherries are nice. But perhaps the most classical of pairings is Vintage Port and a nice salty blue cheese such as the English Stilton or the French Roquefort. The sweet richness of the wine and the salty intensity of the cheese make for a great balance against each other.

Well, there you have it. Everything you need to know to start enjoying Port today. As many parts of the country is stuck with the winter blues, I can think of no better way to while away a long cold night than to curl up by the fire with your sweetie and enjoy a sip of the sweet and savory delight that is Port. A little something to warm the bones and the soul, and a time-honored tradition in many parts of the world.

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