|  Port
wine takes its name from the city of Porto,
or “Oporto” in English located at
the head of the river Douro in Portugal, facing
west out into the Atlantic. Port wine was, and
still is, mostly shipped from Oporto but, ironically,
the local vineyards that surround the port cannot
supply the grapes for the famous port wine,
producing vinho verde only.
Rather, it is further east in the upper reaches
of the Douro, almost to the Spanish frontier,
where the vineyards cling precariously to the
steep hills in terraces of thin soil over slate
and granite. This area undergoes extremes of
weather; snow is not out of the question in
winter whilst in summer the vineyards bake in
almost constant sun and temperatures in the
high thirties Celsius.
The Douro region is divided into three districts;
the Baixo Corgo, Cima Corgo and Douro Superior
– unlike French wines these districts
will rarely appear on the label of a bottle
of Port. However, the Baixo Corgo tends to be
the wettest region and hence the grapes are
less ripe resulting in less concentrated wines.
The Cima Corgo produces the ripest grapes thanks
to its balance of heat and rainfall, whilst
the Douro Superior produces equally high quality
grapes but is more isolated with fewer vineyards.
To the consumer this is mostly academic since
most Port wines are the result of blends of
grapes from different Quintas (or estates) either
owned by the Port shippers or bought in from
independent owners.
The success of Port wine was born of adversity
when England and France were at war in the 17th
century. With French wine unobtainable the British
wine merchants had to look elsewhere for their
supplies and Portugal was the answer.
However, the local product was a little thin
and acidic compared with what the British were
used to – heavier, richer Bordeaux’s.
So two adventurous English traders headed further
inland in the Douro where they came across a
local wine that was smoother and richer than
most red Portuguese wines of the day. The difference
was that it had been fortified with brandy,
a practice still used today in all port production.
 Another
fifty years were to pass before the trade really
took off with the signing of the Methuen trade
treaty in 1703 – this meant favourable
English duty rates on Portuguese wines in return
for similar treatment for English textiles in
Portugal. This boom period marks the formation
of many of the famous shippers who are still
around today.
In order to control the temptation to de-fraud
and fake in the midst of this boom, the Portuguese
King Jose I created a state company to control
the industry and in 1756 to 1761 they mapped
the region and rated each wine. This was probably
the earliest wine demarcation in the world,
predating the French Appellation Controlee by
180 years.
Unlike other parts of the wine world, Port
wine does not wax lyrical over the type of grapes
it uses in production. Port wine is inherently
a blend of varieties. However, the Touriga Nacional
has now received almost universal consent to
be the Port grape. It produces very deeply coloured
and tannic wines with blackcurrant notes and
intense fruit character. Other grapes used are
Tinta Roriz, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Barroca
and Tinta Cao.
Since the Douro area is so rugged the harvest
is still mainly done by hand and in some of
the older quintas the treading to produce “must”
is still done primarily by the human foot. The
skin of the grapes provide the colour and tannin
of the wine and these days modern fermentation
vats circulate the fermenting “must”
– when it is half-fermented and still
sweet, the grape skins are discarded and the
wine is “fortified” by the addition
of neutral grape brandy, killing the yeasts
and halting further fermentation.
 This
young Port is rough and tannic and will need
two or three years as a minimum to mature to
something drinkable (basic ruby Port) and at
least a decade to mature into the premium ports,
Vintage and Tawny, that are characteristically
smooth and rich. Maturation can be either in
wooden casks or in the bottle in the case of
Vintage Port.
All this takes place in the Quinta’s
up in the Douro region during the harvest, autumnal
period. The following spring most of the wine
will be transported to Oporto, in the lodges
of the Vila Nova de Gaia, where the more even,
temperate climate guarantees a long, slow maturation
process. The lodges hold thousands of elongated
old oak casks, known as “pipes”
which hold approximately 712 bottles.
If you read the “Our
Wines” section you can read how the
various types of Port wine are produced and
how long they are aged in casks or bottles to
produce their unique characters.
Storage, Serving & Decanting
Vintage, traditional Late Bottled Vintage (LBV)
and Crusted Ports can be kept for sometime and
may benefit if cellared for the medium to long
term. The bottles should be stored on their
side with the label or white paint splash uppermost
– this keeps the cork moist and, if the
label was to the top, the sediment or crust
will be on the other side, simplifying the later
decanting.
Aged tawnies and Colheitas will stay in good
condition for a few years if stored in a cool,
dark place – don’t keep any port
near a radiator or central heating boiler!
Other ports like rubies and modern LBV can
be stored upright and should keep for a year
or two before opening but they will not improve
anymore in the bottle.
Decanting has a bit of mythology surrounding
it and most people seem to imagine it is difficult
to do correctly. In reality all it really requires
is a spare clean bottle (a decanter if you have
one) and a steady hand to pour.
 Move
the bottle of wine and place it upright in the
room you will be decanting in 24 hours before
you need the wine – this will allow the
sediment to settle at the bottom of the bottle.
Uncork your bottle a few hours before you plan
to drink it. The wine can then be poured gently
from your bottle to the decanter in one slow,
continuous movement. Do not stop half way through!
Stop pouring as soon as the sediment reaches
the neck of the bottle – this can be made
easier to see if you have a candle or a light
behind the bottle to view the sediment through
the glass, or if you use a funnel with a piece
of muslin in it to catch, and view, the sediment
as it appears.
Serving temperatures – as a general rule
if there is too much alcohol in the taste of
your wine try serving it cooler than normal
(centrally heated!) room temperature. For example,
Ruby and LBV Ports will benefit from being served
at a cool room temperature, the effect can be
achieved by keeping the bottle in the fridge
and taking it out an hour, or an hour and a
half, before you need it to let it come up to
16 to 18C.
Tawnies and Colheitas are better even cooler
– take them from the fridge half an hour
to an hour beforehand to achieve a 14C to 16C
temperature. This makes the wine very smooth
and refreshing.
White Port can be served chilled straight from
the fridge.
The ideal glass to serve Port wine in is an
ISO tasting glass, a smaller version of what
you might typically get served white wine in,
with a top narrower than the bowl of the glass,
to enable you to savour the aroma as well as
the taste. You could also use the Savoy or Paris
glass types. If anyone offers you it in a schooner
(and apologies if this is what you use) then
this is the wrong glass for Port altogether
as the outward sloping sides lose the aromas
of the wine.
If you are having a dinner party and wish to
pass the port around then do so to the left,
clockwise around the table until the bottle
ends up back in front of the host. This is an
old tradition but a useful one to invoke if
you find one of your guests hogging your Port!
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