A Primer on Port

Many years ago, probably at a winery in California that was trying something new, I was introduced to port wine – usually just called port.

Port is a sweet dessert wine with a high alcohol content. Relatedly, it is responsibly served in a small glass to help you keep your wits about you. Traditionally made from red wine grapes, port is like Champagne – in order to call it port, it has to come from Portugal, namely the Douro Valley. Although Portugal makes regular wine, too (much to my surprise; I truly had no idea!), I have long wanted to visit Portugal to learn more about my favorite way to end a meal. Here’s what I learned!

• The Douro River Valley is about 2 hours east of Porto and is home to 166 different varieties of wine grapes, most of which eventually become port. The Douro River starts in Spain where it is known as the Duero River – where we began our trip a couple of weeks ago. In Spain, most of the grapes grown along this river are Tempranillo grapes which are turned into regular (not port) wine.

I just can't get over this view!

• Ports are not made from specific varieties of grapes. Instead, they are made from a mishmash of red grapes grown in the Douro Valley. Over half of the 150+ different grape varieties in the Douro Valley are red. Which ones are in your bottle of port is a delicious mystery.

I was entranced by how the vineyards crawled over
every hill and ravine. Years ago, I thought all European
vineyards looked like this but I had never seen
it until Portugal!

• As with regular wine, not every year’s grape harvest is a winner. Unlike regular wine, though, if it’s not a stellar year for port, the grapes will be pressed into juice, aged, and will be blended with wine from other years to make a non-vintage port later on. But those years that are awesome? Those years – decreed by the Spanish alcohol bigwigs 2 years after the harvest – are designated as Vintage years. Ports made those years are made only using grapes from that year and the year is proudly printed on the bottle. Generally speaking, vintage ports are considered better and fancier and are more expensive than non-vintage ports.
  
  
• Since it takes a while for port wine potential to reveal itself, port makers let their wine hang out for a couple of years before they decide – based on Bigwig proclamations – if their wine will become ruby port, vintage port, or tawny port (more on that in a moment).

Speaking of hanging out...

• The key thing that differentiates port from regular wine is that the fermentation of port is stopped quickly – typically after only a couple of days – so that the sugar content is kept high. Fermentation is stopped by adding alcohol (elegantly translated as “spirit water”) to the grape juice. The extra alcohol kills the yeast and stops fermentation. This also increases the alcohol content of port. Whereas your typical red wine might have 12-14% alcohol, port has 19-21%. Yee haw! Sip that little glass slowly!

The grapes in the Douro Valley are
hand-picked. This is why. The hills
are STEEP and the vineyards are
terraced. The difficulty accessing
the vines is one of the reasons ports
can be expensive.

• There are several main types of port. They all start the same; the difference is how/if they are blended and how they are aged. Ruby port is young, lower quality, and is aged 2-7 years in stainless steel or concrete before being bottled. LBV – which stands for Late Bottle Vintage – is a cheaper, accessible port that is produced every year regardless of the quality of the grapes. It will have the year on the label but it is NOT a vintage port. LBV is typically aged 4-6 years in large wood barrels. Vintage port is port from one year that has been deemed special and worthy by the aforementioned bigwigs. Vintage ports are typically aged up to 3 years in stainless steel or wood barrels but can continue aging in the bottle for decades (like 80+ years). Tawny ports are aged in smaller barrels for up to three years before bottling. This allows them to have more contact with wood, giving tawny ports a more caramelly and nutty and brown sugary flavor than the fruity, black jamminess of vintage or LBVs.

Three different Vintage Ports.
At the end, I asked for a taste of their
20-year-old tawny. It won!

• The barrels that port is aged in are OLD. Like over 100 years old. They stay in good shape because the extra sugar in the fortified wine keeps the wood solid.

Such a different approach to barrels 
than wine making. Port makers use
barrels forevvvvvver!

• Vintage ports are delicate like Champagne in that they must be consumed within 24 hours after opening the bottle because they quickly go flat. They also need to be decanted. Non-vintage ports don’t need as much special handling. They can age in the bottle for 5-6 years and can keep in the fridge for 4-5 months after opening. Tawny ports, on the other hand, can last for up to a year after opening the bottle if you keep it chilled in the fridge. A fast and easy trick: if the bottle of port you are opening has a regular cork in it, drink it quickly. If instead the bottle has a T-cork in it, it can last a while.

Snagged off the interwebs: a t-cork
(or T-Cap Cork if you want to be official)

• There’s a white port called Chip Dry that is mostly available only in Portugal, Spain, and England. It is made from white grapes and is aged for up to 3 years before being bottled. It is dry and citrusy and is being marketed to younger people to try to get them drinking port (port is commonly considered an “old people’s drink” in Portugal). The hip way to drink Chip Dry is with tonic water, soda water, and a sprig of mint. I tried a “port tonic” and it was pretty dang tasty, even though I’m not sure white-haired 58-year-olds are supposed to be drinking it. I’m a fan of tonic water, so I am going to find a dry white wine at home to try to replicate the refreshing cocktail of the Portuguese Millennials.

L to R: Chip Dry, LVB from 2020,
Vintage Port from 2018, 20-Year-Old Tawny

Speaking of Portuguese Millennials:
our lunch entertainment one day was
a gaggle of young women eventually
celebrating a birthday but first, sooooo
many poses for the camera! 
Click here for an entertaining video!

• One company is also making a Rose port. It is a gorgeous dark pink/fuchsia color. It is sweet and tastes a bit like cherry or strawberry Kool-Aid. It was fun to try but I’m not sad its availability is mostly limited to northern Portugal.

Isn't that pretty?? Pretty much tastes
like it looks.

• Interestingly, the older the tawny port, the LIGHTER the color. Usually, as wines age they get more brown, not less brown. Go figure!

Not the best photo to illustrate my point, but at
least you can see the beautiful amber color of
the tawny ports.

• After trying all sorts of ports (one day we tried 10…), I have concluded I prefer tawny ports, typically 20-year tawnys. At dinner in Lisbon, we ordered a glass of 1974 tawny port that blew us both away and did amazing things with a chocolate torte. For red/ruby ports, I seem to like older Vintage ports that are at least 25 years old. Probably because they tend to not be quite so fruity as they age. 

This was NOT the 10-port day.
No, this was after a food-and-wine
tour that left us not needing more of
either, and yet...