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Port wine (also known as Vinho do Porto, Oporto, Porto, and often simply Port) is a sweet Portuguese, fortified wine from the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is often served as a dessert wine. Wines in the style of the Portuguese product called port are produced around the world in several countries—most notably Australia, South Africa, India, Canada and the United States. However, under European Union guidelines, only the product from Portugal may be labelled as Port. In the United States, Federal law mandates that the Portuguese-made product be labeled Porto or Vinho do Porto.

Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the Douro region. The wine produced is then fortified with the addition of distilled grape spirits, often cognac, in order to boost the alcohol content. The wine is then stored and aged, often in barrels stored in caves (Portuguese meaning "cellars") as is the case in Vila Nova de Gaia, before being bottled. The wine received its name, "Port," in the latter half of the 17th century from the seaport city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro River, where much of the product was brought to market or for export to other countries in Europe from the Leixões docks. The Douro valley where Port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756 — making it the second oldest defined and protected wine region in the world.

The Douro River Valley: growth and production

The reaches of the valley of the Douro River in northern Portugal have a microclimate that is optimal for cultivation of olives, almonds, and especially grapes important for making the famous Port wine. The region around Pinhão and São João da Pesqueira is considered to be the centre of Port production, and is known for its picturesque quintas—farms clinging on to almost vertical slopes dropping down to the river.

History

Recent archaeological excavations have shown evidence of wine production in the Douro valley dating back to the 3rd or 4th century AD. However, the present-day wine industry started in the mid-15th Century, with the fortification of local wines beginning in the early 18^th Century.

Vineyard

Red port can be made from many types of grapes (castas), but the main ones are Tinta Barroca, Tinta Cão, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Touriga Francesa, and Touriga Nacional. While not technically "port" because they are not made in Portugal, some wineries in the United States have had some success in leveraging the Port idea with other grapes, such as Frontenac. A Frontenac Port won Gold at the 2006 Indy International.

White ports are produced the same way as red ports, except that they use white grapes—Esgana-Cão, Folgasão, Malvasia, Rabigato, Verdelho, and Viosinho. While Porto produced in Portugal is strictly regulated by the Instituto do Vinho do Porto, many wines in the U. S. use the above names but do not conform to the same standards. Thus each genuine port style has a corresponding, often very different, style that can be found in wines made outside Portugal.

Transport

Traditionally, the wine was taken downriver in flat-bottom boats called rabelos, to be stored in barrels in cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the river from Porto. During the 1950s and 1960s, several hydroelectric power dams were built along the river, ending this traditional conveyance down the river. Currently, the wine is transported from the vineyards by tanker trucks.

Authentication

The Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP or Port and Douro Wine Institute) regulates the Port industry in Portugal.

Properties

Port wine is typically richer, sweeter, heavier, and possesses a higher alcohol content than most other wines. This is caused by the addition of distilled grape spirits (aguardente similar to brandy) to fortify the wine and halt fermentation before all the sugar is converted to alcohol.

It is commonly served after meals as a dessert wine, often with cheese; commonly stilton. White and tawny ports are often served as an apéritif.

Wine with less than 16% ethanol cannot protect itself against spoilage if exposed to air; with an alcohol content of 18% or higher, port wine can safely be stored in wooden casks that 'breathe', thereby permitting the fine ageing of port wine.

Styles

Port from Portugal comes in several styles, which can be divided into two broad categories:

1. Wines that have matured in sealed tanks or bottles, with no exposure to air, and experience what is known as "reductive" aging. The wines very slowly take on a tawny colour, and become smoother on the palate and less tannic.
2. Wines that have matured in wooden barrels, whose permeability allows a small amount of exposure to oxygen, and experience what is known as "oxidative" aging. They too lose colour, but at a faster pace. They also lose volume to evaporation, leaving behind a wine that is slightly more viscous and intense.

When white ports are matured for long periods, the colour darkens, eventually reaching a point where it can be hard to discern (from appearance alone) whether the original wine was red or white.

Wines matured in barrels are sometimes known as 'wood ports'.

Tawny port and Colheita

Tawny ports are wines made from red grapes that are aged in wooden barrels, exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation. As a result, they gradually mellow to a golden-brown colour. The exposure to wood imparts "nutty" flavours to the wine, which is blended to match the house style.

Tawny Reserve port (without an indication of age) is a basic blend of wood aged port that has spent at least seven years in barrels.

Tawny with an indication of age is a blend of several vintages, with the average years "in wood" stated on the label, the official categories being 10, 20, 30 and over 40 years. For each category, the average age of the various vintage is at least that of the given category.

The cheapest forms of Tawny Port are young wines made from a blend of red and white grapes. Unlike Tawny Reserve and Tawnies with an indication of age, they may have spent little or no time maturing in wood.

Tawny ports from a single vintage are called Colheitas (pronounced col-YATE-ah, meaning harvest). Instead of an indication of age (10, 20...) their actual vintage year is mentioned. However, they should not be mistaken with Vintage port (see below). The term colheita is also applied to madeiras produced from grapes of a single vintage.

Garrafeira

Garrafeira is an intermediate vintage dated style of Port made from the grapes of a single harvest that combines both the oxidative maturation of years in wood, with further reductive maturation in large glass demijohns. It is required by the IVDP that wines spend some time in wood, usually between three and six years, followed by at least a further eight years in glass, before bottling. In practice the times spent in glass are much longer. At present, only one company, Niepoort, markets Garrafeiras. Their black demijohns, affectionately known as bon-bons, hold approximately 11 litres each.

Confusingly, the word Garrafeira may be found on some very old Tawny labels, where the contents of the bottle are of exceptional age.

Ruby port

Ruby port is the cheapest and most extensively produced type of port. After fermentation it is stored in tanks made of concrete or stainless steel to prevent oxidative aging, and preserve its rich claret color. The wine is usually blended to match the style of the brand to which it is to be sold.

The wine is fined and cold filtered prior to bottling, and does not generally improve with age. It is aged for about 3 to 5 years from wines of two or three different vintages.

White port

White port is made from white grapes, and should always be served cool or cold. It can be used as the basis for a cocktail, or served on its own. There is a range of styles of white port, from dry to very sweet.

Vintage port

Although it accounts for only about two percent of production, vintage port is the flagship wine of all Portugal. Vintage port is made entirely from the grapes of a declared vintage year. Not every year is declared a vintage in the Douro; only those when conditions are favourable to the production of a fine and lasting wine. The decision on whether to declare a vintage is made in the spring of the second year following the harvest.

The decision to declare a vintage is made by each individual port house, often referred to as a 'shipper'. The port industry is one where reputations are hard won and easily lost, so the decision is never taken lightly. During periods of recession and war, potential 'declarations' have sometimes been missed for economic reasons. In recent years, some shippers have adopted the 'chateau' principle for declarations, declaring all but the worst years. More conventional shippers will declare, on average, about three times a decade.

While it is by far the most renowned type of porto, from a volume and revenue standpoint, vintage port actually makes up only a small percentage of the production of most shippers. Vintage ports are aged in barrels for a maximum of two and a half years before bottling, and generally require another ten to thirty years of aging in the bottle before reaching what is considered a proper drinking age. Since they are aged in barrels for only a short time, they retain their dark ruby colour and fresh fruit flavours. Particularly fine vintage ports can continue to gain complexity and drink wonderfully for many decades after they were bottled, and therefore can be particularly sought-after and expensive wines.

Single Quinta Vintage Port is vintage port produced from a particular vineyard and sometimes from a lesser "undeclared" year. However, some of the most renowned Vintage Ports are Single Quintas.

Late Bottled Vintage (often referred to simply as LBV) was originally wine that had been destined for bottling as Vintage Port, but due to lack of demand was left in the barrel for rather longer than had been planned. Over time it has become two distinct styles of wine, both of them bottled between four and six years after the vintage, but one style is fined and filtered prior to bottling while the other is not.

The filtered wine has the advantage of being ready to drink without decanting, and is bottled in a stoppered bottle that can be easily resealed. However many wine experts feel that this convenience comes at a price and believe that the filtration process strips out much of the character of the wine.

Unfiltered wines are bottled with conventional corks and need to be decanted. Recent bottlings are identified by the label wording 'Unfiltered' or 'Bottle matured' (or both). Prior to the 2002 regulations, this style was often marketed as 'Traditional', a description that is no longer permitted.

If in doubt, a prospective purchaser can check the cork, and examine the top of the bottle to see if there is a stopper underneath the capsule; the serrated edge of a stopper is usually visible, or can be detected with a thumbnail. LBV is intended to provide some of the experience of drinking a Vintage Port but without the decade-long wait of bottle aging. To a limited extent it succeeds, as the extra years of oxidative aging in barrel does mature the wine more quickly.

Typically ready to drink when released, LBV ports are the product of a single year's harvest and tend to be lighter bodied than a vintage port. Filtered LBVs do not improve significantly with age, whereas the unfiltered wines will usually be improved by a few extra years in the bottle. Since 2002, bottles that carry the words 'Bottle matured' must have enjoyed at least three years of bottle maturation prior to release.

Reserve or vintage character

Reserve port is a premium Ruby port approved by the IVDP's tasting panel, the Câmara de Provadores. In 2002, the IVDP prohibited the use of the term "Vintage Character", as the wine had neither attribute.

Crusted

Crusted Port may be considered a 'poor man's vintage port'. It is a blend of port wine from several vintages, which, like Vintage Port, is bottled unfiltered, and sealed with a driven cork. Like Vintage Port it needs to be decanted before drinking. Although Crusted ports will improve with age, the blending process is intended to make these wines approachable at a much younger age. The date on a Crusted Port bottle refers to the bottling date, not the year the grapes were grown.

Vintages

Strictly speaking, the vintage is the harvest period when the grapes are gathered, and the wine made. Be it a good year or bad, there is therefore a vintage every year. If a shipper decides that his wine is of sufficient quality, and wishes to market some of it as Vintage Port, then they will send samples to the IVDP for approval, and declare the vintage. In very good years, almost all the shippers will declare their wines, although there are a small number of independent Quintas who never produce Vintage Port. In good intermediate years, the producers of blended Vintage Ports will not declare their flagship blended wine, but will study the quality of the wine from the component Quintas that make up the blend, to see if they are of sufficient quality to be declared in their own right.

Thus from 1996, which was not declared by Dow or Taylor for their main blend, you can find Dow's Quinta do Bomfim, and Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas, amongst others. However, you will not normally find these wines marketed for years when the main blend is declared. Some shippers now choose to declare their wines on all but the worst years. Quinta do Vesuvio, which has been producing Vintage Ports in its own name since it was acquired by the Symington family in 1989, has declared a vintage every year with the exceptions of 1993 and 2002.

Although there have been years when only one or two wines have been declared, it is over thirty years since there was a year with no declarations at all. With improved wine making technologies, and better weather forecasts during the harvest, it is possible that we will never again see a year without any Vintage Port to its name.

History and tradition

Established in 1756, the Port Wine-producing Douro region is the second-oldest protected wine region in the world.

In 1756, during the rule of the Marquês do Pombal, the Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro (C.G.A.V.A.D., also known as the General Company of Viticulture of the Upper Douro) was founded to guarantee the quality of the product and fair pricing to the end consumer. The C.G.A.V.A.D. was also in charge of regulating which Port Wine would be for export or internal consumption and managing the protected geographic indication.

Port became very popular in England after the Methuen Treaty of 1703, when merchants were permitted to import it at a low duty, while war with France deprived English wine drinkers of French wine. The long trip to England often resulted in spoiled wine; the fortification of the wine was introduced to improve the shipping and shelf-life of the wine for its journey.

The continued English involvement in the port trade can be seen in the names of many port shippers: Cockburn, Croft, Dow, Graham, Osborne, Sandeman, Taylor and Warre being amongst the best known. Shippers of Dutch and German origin are also prominent, such as Niepoort and Burmester.

There is a unique body of English ritual and etiquette surrounding the consumption of port, stemming from British naval custom.

Traditionally, the wine is passed "port to port": the host will pour a glass for the person seated at their right and then pass the bottle or decanter to the left (the port side); this practice is then repeated around the table.

If the port becomes forestalled at some point, it is considered poor form to ask for the decanter directly. Instead, the person seeking a refill would ask of the person who has the bottle: "Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?" (after the notoriously stingy Bishop). If the person being thus queried does not know the ritual (and so replies in the negative), the querent will remark "He's an awfully nice fellow, but he never remembers to pass the port."

A technical solution to the potential problem of a guest forgetting their manners and "hogging" the port can be found in a Hoggett Decanter which has a rounded bottom, which makes it impossible to put it down until it has been returned to the host, who can rest it in a specially designed wooden stand known as "the Hoggett."

In other old English traditions when port is decanted, commonly at the dining table, the whole bottle should be finished in one sitting by the diners, and the table should not be vacated until this is done.

Storing and Serving Port

 Storing Port

Port, like other wine should be stored in a cool, but not cold, dark location (as light can damage the port), with a steady temperature (Such as a cellar), laying the bottle on its side if the bottle has a cork, or standing up if stoppered^[2].

Serving Port

With the exception of white port, which can be served chilled, port should be served at between 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. Tawny port may also be served slightly cooler

Some ports should be decanted prior to serving.

Opened Bottles

Once opened, port wines must be consumed within a period of time. Those with stoppers can be kept for a couple of months in a dark place, but if it has a cork it must be consumed sooner. Typically, the older the vintage, the quicker it must be consumed.

Decanting Port

Why?

Port wines that are unfiltered (Such as Vintage ports, Crusted and some LBVs), form a sediment (or Crust) in the bottle and require decanting, otherwise there will be sediment in the glass. It also allows the port to breathe, however, how long before serving is dependent on the age of the port (particularly in the case of Vintage ports).

Process

If the bottle was laying on its side, before opening the bottle, stand the bottle upright for some time (An hour or two is best, but at least 30 minutes.), then, taking care to leave the sediment in the bottle, slowly pour the port into a clean, dry decanter, stopping as soon as any sediment is seen. If the cork has disintegrated, then a filter, such as a piece of clean muslin will be required.

source Wikipedia.org