Port wine is a Portuguese dessert wine made from red and white wine grapes and fortified with brandy, a liquor produced by distilling wine. Only wines produced in Portugal’s Douro Valley can be labeled as Port.
Furthermore, the port wine growers are concentrated along the Douro River, like Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, where grapes are still crushed by foot.
Port is named after Portugal’s seaport city of Porto in the Douro region, which became an official appellation in 1756.
Portuguese producers included a certification seal on their bottles to denote their origin and legitimacy.
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About Port Wine
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More than 80 grape varieties can be used to produce Port. The major varieties used in Ports with a red wine base are Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz same as Tempranillo, Tinta Cão, Tinta Barroca, and Touriga Franca.
In adittion, there are more than 30 grapes that can be used in the production of white Port, which includes Sercial, Malvasia Fina, Viosinho, Rabigato, Gouveio, and Folgasão.
Even though there are many unique grape varietals in the Douro, most are picked, destemmed, and fermented together.
The base for Port is made like any other wine. However, there’s an additional step.
Before all the sugar has been converted to alcohol, brandy is introduced to the wine to halt the fermentation. This action kills the remaining yeast and stops fermentation.
The resulting wine retains some of its residual sugar, resulting in off-dry to sweet final profiles, and possesses a higher alcohol content, typically around 20% alcohol by volume. This process is known as fortification.
The Port is then transferred to casks for aging or goes straight to bottles.
All ports are sweet, but depending on how long it’s been aged and the grapes used in its production
The main types of Ports are:
Ruby Port
The ruby port is Made from red wine grapes indigenous to Portugal like Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, and Tinta Barraco. Ruby port is Bright, fruity, fresh, and made for immediate consumption.
Rosé Port
Rosé port is technically a ruby port, employing slightly less skin contact to achieve a paler color just as in standard rosés. It has a red fruit spectrum with notes of strawberry, raspberry, and cranberries.
White Port
White port is made from white grapes like Rabigato, Viosinho, Malvasia, and Gouveia. Its flavor is like peach and apricot, as well as lemon peel.
Tawny Port
Tawny Port is a barrel-aged wine. The highest quality tawny Ports are aged in wood and labeled 10, 20, 30, or over 40 years, resulting in a complex flavor profile, exhibiting all the flavor signatures of oxidative wines: Warm spices, hazelnut, vanilla, date, fig, and prune. The longer tawny ports sit, the deeper they become.
Vintage Port
Vintage Ports are the most expensive and sought-after style. The wines must be aged in barrels and bottled two to three years after harvest. These wines can age up to 40 to 50 years before they are ready to be fully enjoyed.
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