All About Port

What is Port?

• Port is wine that has been fortified with brandy during fermentation. The addition of brandy stops the fermentation process, leaving a sweet wine that packs some power.
• Purely Portuguese, by law port must come from a specific region, from grapes grown in steep, terraced vineyards along the Douro River.
• The word "port" is not a condensed version of "Portugal" but a reference to the port town Oporto, from which the wines are exported.

How do they make port?

• Winemakers add brandy to fermenting grape juice. 
• The high alcohol content of brandy kills the yeast, abruptly stopping fermentation. To prematurely halt fermentation leaves a remainder of sugar. 
• The result is port, a wine that is at once sweet and strong.

Why fortify it?

Port was built to last. In the early days of the wine trade, lengthy sea voyages often turned wines to vinegar. Adding brandy to the wines ensured a longer life.

Ruby Port:

• Typically the least expensive type of port.
• Ruby ports are blends of wine from different vintages.
• Rubies are usually sold after spending two or three years in large wooden casks. 
• They are not intended to be cellared.
• Rubies have warm, berry flavors and deep ruby color.

Food Pairing Suggestion:

Enjoy Ruby ports with blue cheese, red cherries, and fresh berry desserts.

Tawny Port:

• The best tawny ports are labeled with some indication of their age--10, 20, 30 years old and so on (though this is an average age because they are blends of different vintages).
• Better tawny ports earn their amber color through long aging in wooden casks, which produces a smooth, soft character and nutty flavors. 
• Inexpensive tawny ports often achieve their rusty color not by long aging but because they are blends of youthful ruby and white port or are simply made from less ripened grapes.
  
  

Food Pairing Suggestion:

Serve tawny port with chocolate, caramel, dried fruit, nuts (like walnuts and almonds), and aged Cheddar cheese.

Vintage Port:

• In years when the quality of grapes and the conditions in the vineyards are exceptional, grapes are set aside to make single-vintage port.
• Since few years are exceptional enough to pass muster, vintage port is a relative rarity. 
• Vintage port is labeled with a particular year, unlike most ports which are blends of various vintages. 
• Vintage port labels include both the vintage year and the year the wine was bottled. 
• To reach their peak, vintage ports often require many additional years of aging in bottle.

Feeling spendy?

Try one of these great vintages from the 20th century: '27, '45, '63, '70, '73, and '85. The 1990s saw several exceptional vintages, too, but these are widely considered too young to drink.

Food Pairing Suggestion:

Try with blue cheese (Stilton is a classic pairing), chocolate desserts, and nuts (particularly walnuts and almonds).

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV):

• The letters "LBV" on a bottle stand for "Late Bottled Vintage"
• This designation means the wine is from a single vintage, from a good year but not necessarily one that earned a vintage designation. 
• The label will show the year of the vintage and the year the wine was bottled. 
• If the label says "traditional," the wine is unfiltered; decant "traditional" LBV's before drinking as there might be some sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

Single Quinta Port:

Quinta means "vineyard" in Portuguese. Not surprisingly, single quinta port is made from grapes of a single vineyard. They are made to be aged many years in bottle.

White Port:

These are made with white rather than red grapes, which achieve an attractive golden hue after several years of aging in wooden casks. White ports run the gamut from super sweet to quite dry.