In a class of its own, Port is a unique fortified wine style hailing from the
spectacular terraced vineyards of Portugal’s Douro Valley.
It has inspired imitations from many of the world’s wine regions, but much as
with Champagne, none of the competitors can match a top vintage Port from a good
producer.
• Porto DOC
Porto is a unique wine style that derives its flavour, strength and sweetness
from the process of adding spirit to still-sweet part-fermented grape must.
Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Port represents two
rather different wine styles, depending whether the wine is primarily aged in
bottle or in cask.
Most readers will probably be familiar with the sweet, dark, tannic, richly
fruited style of Vintage and Single Quinta Ports which are bottled fairly young,
and will then slowly age to mellowness. Less commonly appreciated are the
cask-matured Ports known as Tawny or Colheita (these are vintage dated tawnies),
which are typically lighter in colour, with soft, spicy nutty flavours and less
overt fruitiness. Both styles are worthwhile.
Types of Ports - Aged from a single harvest
• Vintage
Vintage Porto (or VP for short) is considered the crème de la crème or King of
Ports.
On average, VPs are only produced 3 times per decade, in the very best of years.
A Port declaration only occurs when a shipper believes they have enough quantity
of very high caliber grapes to bottle from a single harvest.
VP’s typically are a blend of grapes from several Quinta’s that a producer owns
or buys from.
However, some grapes are also purchased from other contracted Quinta’s.
After the initial vinification, VP’s are stored in used (and neutral) oak
barrels for at least two years.
By law, VP’s must then be bottled between the 2nd and 3rd year after harvest.
They are bottled unfined and unfiltered and will form a rather large amount of
sediment over time and must be decanted prior to drinking.
VP’s are typically designed to need many years of cellaring before they fully
mature.
There's strict controls on when a Porto can be called Vintage, or 'declared' as
it is known:
- the wine must be from a single harvest,
- bottled between 1st July of the second year following harvest, and before the
30th June of the third.
- the maker must submit samples of the wine to the Instituto do Vinho do Porto,
together with details of the quantity of wine to be released, the yield of wine
from the grapes, and the proposed release date of the wine.
If the Instituto is convinced that the wine is of sufficient quality they grant
their approval and the maker can 'declare' the Vintage.
Not all makers declare a specific year. It is a brave maker that does not follow
the lead of other houses, but it is a far braver maker that declares a Vintage
year when few others do.
This results in much debate about the merits of one vintage over another, and
the merits of one makers vintage over that of another makers.
• Late Bottled Vintage (LBV)
Late Bottled Vintage Ports are produced from the grapes of a single harvest; the
vintage of which will be stated on the label, and can be either filtered or
unfiltered (formerly called “Traditional”).
The year of bottling will also appear, typically on the back label of the
bottle.
LBVs are bottled between the 4th and 6th year after harvest and typically spend
those years in very large oak barrels, which are called Tonnels.
LBVs which are filtered (and fined) are designed to be consumed upon release and
are not meant to be aged.
Filtered LBVs do not possess sediment and need no decanting prior to drinking.
Most filtered LBVs do not state the term “filtered” on their label.
Unfiltered LBVs will throw a “crust” (aka: sediment) just like a Vintage Port
and need to be decanted.
These types of LBVs can be cellared for longer term drinking than a filtered LBV
(5-20 years) or consumed right away.
Most of the time the word “Unfiltered” will appear on the front or back label to
indicate this designation of LBV Port style.
• Single Quinta Vintage
Whereas Vintage Ports are blended with great skill from different vineyard
sources, Single Quinta Ports are, as the name suggests, made from single
estates.
This is where some of the best value Port is to be found.
Essentially, they are treated the same as Vintage Port, bottled just two years
after harvest, and will also need decanting.
In many cases these wines are components of Vintage Ports during vintage years
and are then released as Single Quinta wines in non-Vintage years.
They might also be from independent estates who bottle their own Ports each
year, an increasingly common practice.
• Colheita
Colheita (pronounced Col-yate-a) is pure and simply, a single vintage-dated
Tawny Port, (all grapes are from one harvest) which are aged in small used oak
barrels. In Portugese the word "Coleheita" actually means "harvest" and can be
construed therefore, to mean vintage as well.
Colheita Ports may also go by the name of "Port of the Vintage" and therefore
must not be confused with Vintage Port, even though it is vintage dated on the
label.
If "Reserve" or "Reserva" is on the label...it means that the wine is a Colheita
and not a VP.
Colheita must be aged in cask at least 7 years, but eight years is pretty
typical, but they may spend as many as 50 or more years maturing in wood.
Look for the date of bottling on the front or the back label ("Bottled In 19XX
") along with the words "matured in wood" or "aged in cask"...both of which are
further clues that this is not a Vintage Port.
Colheitas offer excellent value as these wines are well aged, can be considered
outstanding quality Tawny Ports, and are less expensive than similarly aged
VP's.
Like VPs, Colheitas are "declared" after approval by the I.V.D.P. (Port and
Douro Wine Institute, located in Oporto with a secondary branch in Lisboa).
There is even less Colheita produced than VP, approximately 1% of all Port
produced and mostly Portuguese Port Shippers produce the great ones, it is far
more popular in Portugal thanthe rest of the world. where it is just becoming
more popular in the past five years.
There are some Colheitas from the 1800’s that are still aging in small oak
barrels in Portugal! Colheitas change dramatically during this extended time in
cask and take on flavors of dried fruits, nuts, citrus and exotic spices, while
becoming very smooth and complex the older they get.
Types of Ports - Non Vintage
• Crusted
Often referred to as the “Poor man’s Vintage Port” because they emulate the
qualities of a Vintage Port but are a fraction of the price.
Crusted Ports are blends of at least two or more vintage years that age in wood
for up to four years and ideally at least three years in bottle, left unfiltered
and are intended to be aged in bottle for midterm cellaring (10-20 years).
Crusted Ports are not often seen today outside of the UK, as LBVs have all but
replaced them.
They offer good quality at typically very good prices, and will need to be
decanted just like a Vintage Port to remove the sediment (or “crust”).
A little known Crusted Port factoid: Like VP, Crusted Porto must get used to its
storage conditions and initially will throw more of a "crust", and then it will
slow down as it acclimates to its surroundings and will continue to slowly
mature.
• Garrafeira
This is a very rare style of Port and many Port lovers have never even heard of
it, and even fewer have ever tasted one. Literally the word garrafeira
(pronounced: gah-rah-FAY-ruh) translates to bottle cellar, private wine cellar
or bottle rack in Portuguese.
Do not confuse this with the word garrafeira you may find on your typical table
wine in Portugal. In that scenario the word "garrafeira" typifies a Reserve
wine, but has nothing to do with Port.
Garrafeira which today is only produced by the Niepoort family is an elegant
style of Port made from the grapes of a single harvest, like a Colheita and
therefore has a vintage date on the bottle.
But "Garrafeira" is its own special category and a unique relationship with
special glass demijohns.
• Pink/Rosé
Pink port is a relatively new variation on the market, first released in 2008 to
appeal to a more youthful market. It is made with the same grapes and according
to the same extremely strict rules that govern the production of vintage and
tawny and ruby ports. It is technically a ruby port, but fermented the way a
rosé wine would be, with a limited exposure to the grape skins, thus the pink
colour.
Bearing the hallmarks of a light ruby with its taste being lighter in style and
containing a fruity flavour, it's commonly served cold in various ways.
• Reserve/Ruby Reserve
This designates a higher quality version of the Ruby Port which used to be
called, “Vintage Character” Port.
A Reserve Ruby is typically a Port which is made by blending a variety of
vintages, with an average age of 5-7 years.
They are still fruit forward Ports, but have more complexity and structure than
a Ruby Port due to the extra time in cask.
• Ruby
This is the most basic of wood-aged Ports and the youngest.
A Ruby Port is a blend of several years, typically averaging 3-5 years old.
They are simple and fruit driven given their young age and are less complex than
a Reserve Ruby or Late Bottled Vintage Port which progressively move towards a
Vintage Port in style.
Ruby Port is vinified to be consumed upon release and is not meant to be aged at
all, with primary, vibrant fruit character.
A lot of people use these to cook with, (e.g. Poached pears or for a Port
reduction) as they are less expensive than other types and very fruit forward.
Lightly chilled, these make a wonderful drink on a warm evening. Almost all Port
producers make a reasonably priced bottle of Ruby Port and they are easy to find
in a wine shop or on the shelves of your local grocer.
Once opened, they last reasonably well, so there is no rush to finish the bottle
quickly.
• Tawny
It must first be mentioned here that Tawny Port, not Vintage Port is the most
popular after dinner wine in Portugal.
It is very easy to find excellent Tawny Port all around Portugal, but there is
some difficulty in finding top notch VP, especially those from older vintages.
Tawny Port actually starts out like a Ruby Port, but then spends an extended
period in wooto soften and round out its character.
As the large oak casks or "pipes" are somewhat porous, the oxygen that enters
over the years will allow some of the wine to evaporate.
This concentrates flavors in the remaining wine and leaves a slight "air gap" at
the top of the cask.
Like a fine wine in a decanter with increased surface area exposed, the Tawny
Port is allowed to oxidize during its time in the oak vessel.
Constant racking over the many years the wine is in cask also allows for further
oxidation.
As this oxidation process takes place, the colour of the wine slowly changes
from a purplish-red eventually to a tawny or reddish-brown.
The more time the Tawny spends in wood the more complex its flavour profile, and
the Tawny-er the colour becomes.
• Tawny with an indication of age
There are only 4 types approved in this category and they are 10 years old, 20
years old, 30 years old, and over 40 years old. These are a blend of many years
where the average age of the bottle is at least 10, 20, 30 or 40 years old.
They are typically produced in a “House style” that varies from producer to
producer yet remains relatively the same from year to year. It is the Master
Blender responsible for exhaustive work at blending these Tawnies that has
maintained the reputation of the "brand" and the Port Shipper's "house style."
The consistency of the particular house style is the primary goal of the
winemaker and master blender, along with producing a wonderful wine year after
year.
These Tawny Ports often give excellent quality to price ratio, (QPR) allowing
the buyer to get an older Port at an affordable price.
Tawny Port with an Indication of Age is what most Tawny lovers seek out, except
those that have been enlightened by Colheita is still very difficult to come by
in the UK marketplace - untill now.
Look on the label of a Tawny Port With An Indication of Age and you will find
the year of the bottling, the age of the wine 10, 20 etc., and a mention that
the wine is aged in cask (or wood).
These wines offer a smooth and silky mouth feel, with intense flavours and
aromas that vary from nutty, caramel, nutmeg, leathery, and even chocolate.
• White
White Port is made from white grapes of which a few dozen varieties qualify for
the final blend.
There are nearly as many white varieties grown in the Douro as red grape types.
White Port is fortified like all other styles of Porto, but vinified like a
tawny and aged for a year in huge oak tanks before further aging in “Pipes” (550
liter oak casks) prior to bottling.
The wines range in colour from that of a pale straw Chardonnay to a beautiful
salmon colour seen frequently in Rose, to those aged for extended periods in
wood that resemble the appearance of ancient Tawnies.