History of Port
Vintage Port is one of the world’s greatest wines. No one knows exactly when port, as we know it, was created. The first wine from Oporto was really just red table wine. A story is told of a wine merchant in Liverpool, who in 1678 sent his sons to Portugal to find a wine source. In the Douro Valley, they came upon a monastery in Lamego. The abbot was adding brandy to the wine during rather than after fermentation, thereby producing a port-type wine. In any event, sometime during the end of the 1600′s or beginning of the 1700′s, someone came up with the idea of stopping the fermentation with brandy while the wine was still sweet, fruity, and strong.
All was going well until in the 1730′s, when the port industry was faced with scandal. The prospect of easy gains caused some of the less scrupulous vintners to begin to add sugar and elderberry juice to give sweetness and color to otherwise overstretched wines. Inferior wine and overproduction caused the price of port to fall.
Port is one of the most regulated wines made today. Vineyards are graded by the Instituto do Vinho do Porto (IVP) accordingly classified into six different categories labeled “A” through “F”. There are twelve different physical factors taken into consideration including productivity (the lower the yield, the higher the mark), gradient, aspect, soil, exposure, and vine varieties. Each factor is given a numerical value, which is then tallied up. A score of more than 1200 points out of a maximum 1680 points is given an “A”. Vineyards scoring less than 200 points are given an “F”. The grade of the vineyard is what determines what they are allowed to produce in any given year. Those with a grade of “F” generally have to pass on the Port market. Surplus grapes are usually made into table wine.
There are many styles of Port, but two broad categories define Port – bottle-aged or cask-aged. The two processes produce distinctly different wines. Bottle-aged Ports keep their color and generally their fruitiness into their maturity. They are aged for a short time in wood and are bottled without filtration where they are meant to mature. Cask-aged Ports lose much of their ______ and become tawny in color. These are aged in wood and then filtered and bottled. They are ready to drink right away.
There are many different kinds of ports. Ruby is the most basic and least expensive style of Port. It is a blend from the produce of several harvests that spends two to three years in stainless steel or wood before it is bottled.
Tawny is aged a few years longer than ruby – at least six years – in the cask before it is bottled. Though some tawny is simply a mixture of ruby and white ports, the best tawny Ports have acquired their pale color – an amber brown or tawny hue – from longer wood aging. The flavor becomes drier and nuttier from the oxidation.
Aged Tawnys are the best tawny Ports. They list the average age of the wines that have gone into making the blends. They are available in 10, 20, 30 and 40 year versions with a corresponding increase in price. A 20-year tawny may give you the most enjoyable experience for the price. Aged tawnys are made from high quality wines and are the byproduct of a master blender.
Colheita is a tawny but from a single vintage. It must receive a minimum of seven years in wood, but most are aged much longer. They should be drunk within a year of that date. This is the rarest of all Port.
White Ports range from very dry to very sweet. The sweetest is designated as Lagrima. These are served straight up or on the rocks, most often as an apéritif.
Crusted Port is named for the crust of sediment it forms in the bottle. It is a blend of port from several vintages that is bottled after three years in cask.
Vintage Character Ports might also be referred to as Super or Premium Ruby. They are a blend that has been aged from four to six years before it is filtered and bottled. They characteristically have more body and fruit than a tawny, but they lack the concentration and complexity of a true vintage Port.
Single-Quinta Ports are made in both tawny and vintage styles but with the distinction that they come from only one vineyard. They are generally produced in years that are not declared. In declared years, their grapes often form the backbone of the Vintage Port blends.
Vintage Port is the finest and most expensive of the Port styles. At most, it accounts for about 2% of all production and is one of the most sought after wines in the world. Vintage Port comes from a single harvest of exceptional quality, as stated on the bottle, and is bottled after two to three years of cask aging. The wine then spends many years maturing in the bottle. It may take fifteen to fifty years for a good Vintage Port to be ready for drinking. Each shipper must decide within two years of a harvest year if that particular year will be of enough quality to be released as a Vintage Port. This is known as “declaring the vintage”. The first vintages were declared around 1734. The best vintages from this century include 1994, 1992, 1991, 1985, 1977, 1970, 1963, 1955, 1948, 1945, 1935, 1931, 1927, and 1912. These wines must be decanted before serving.
There are many options for sporting port drinkers to enjoy, so drink to your health. Salut!
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