was beer in college, remember? If you like to indulge in sweet desserts
and are a closet chocoholic, then Port wine, my friend, is tailor made for
you! Port has a rich and thick velvety texture laced with floral scents,
violets and sweet crushed fruit. It just seems to have an affinity with
most desserts and in particular, those with a focus on chocolate.
Back in 1667, during one of the many times throughout history when
France and England were not getting along, The English stopped buying
their wines from the French. Eager to find a replacement for one of their
favorite pastimes, drinking French wine, the wine merchants settled on
Portugal as a source for wines to be imported into England. These wines
were table wines and not the Port wines that we have come to love
today.
There are two theories that I have uncovered as to how Ports were
created. One was the simple fact that often these wines from Portugal
were not particularly age-worthy wines like those from France and they
did not survive the trip to England. The addition of spirits or grape
brandy during the fermentation process became necessary in order to
preserve these wines for the journey. This process is now known as
fortifying the wine. The other theory involves a priest from a monastery
in Lamengo, Portugal that had decided to add brandy to their wines in
order to make a wine that would be more widely accepted by the
consumers in England. This theory may be more accurate.
Port Wine, as we know it today, comes from the Douro Region in
Northeast Portugal. This is a valley that flocks to the Douro riverbank
that runs through it. There’s a movie title in there somewhere! The City
of Oporto, where the wine derives it’s name, is where the wine is
monitored by the local authorities. Port wines used to be made
exclusively in Portugal, but now you can find Port being made virtually
everywhere that wine is produced.
In Portugal, Port Wines are usually made from grape varieties like
Touriga Nacional or Tinta Roriz. They also have been known to use
Tinta Cao, Touriga Francesa and Tinta Barroca. All of these are red
style grapes. Here in the States, Port can be made from any red grape
variety like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel or Syrah, just to
name a few examples. There are Port Wines made from white grape
varieties, known as White Port, but these are not near as common or well
known as the Red Port styles.
Now if you are like me, the one question that kept popping up in my mind
was, “How does adding grape brandy to the wine make it sweet?” After
all, grape brandy itself isn’t really sweet, just high in alcohol. Here’s
why. The brandy is added to the wine while it is still fermenting. When a
wine is being made during the fermentation process, the yeast cells are
turning the natural sugars that resided in the grapes into alcohol. When
you add the brandy or other spirits with a high alcohol percentage, to the
wine during the fermentation, it immediately kills off the yeast cells, thus
putting a stop to the whole process. The result is a sweet wine with a
high alcohol content, usually between 18 and 20 percent.
There are several different types of Port Wines, each with it’s own
personal style and they are made in a variety of ways. Here is a short
list of the Port Wine styles you may be more likely to see in the store:
Ruby – These are young Port Wines with a ruby color. (I wonder where
they got the name?) These wines are kept in big vats for approximately
three years and exposed to very little oxygen. The result is a sweet wine
that is ready for immediate consumption and in no case should it be aged
further in the bottle.
Old Tawny – These are Port Wines that are aged in large wooden
casks for a period of 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years. That’s a long time!
The longer the amount of time they are aged, the more pricey and sought
after they become. These wines are a brownish light yellow color due to
the exposure of oxygen over the years. They lose a little of the
fruitiness and take on a bit of the spices left behind by the wooden
casks. This wine style does not benefit from further aging in the bottle
either, although they could be cellared for another three to five years if
needed. One interesting note about Tawny Ports is that they can last for
up to a whole month without spoiling after they have initially been
opened.
LBV or Late Bottled Vintage – This Port Wine comes from a single
harvest and creates a wine high in tannins and intensely colored. They
spend 4 to 7 years in big vats with very little exposure to oxygen. The
end result is a Port that is soft and more complex than a Ruby Port, but
again, not meant to be aged.
Vintage – Liquid gold! Vintage Ports only come from a harvest of
exceptional quality and unfortunately, this only comes around on an
average of three times a decade. The latest Vintage Ports were 1994,
1997 and 2000. The 1994 and 2000 are some of the best vintages ever.
The wine is only aged in a wooden cask for two to three years before it is
bottled. It takes high quality Vintage Port between 15 to 40 years to
mature in the bottle. Better buy one now to save for that special wedding
anniversary, etc… This is also the most expensive and sought after
style of Port by far and I believe an almost sure investment. Consider
this, the 1994 Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port sold for around $59.00 when
it was originally released to the market. It currently sells for $439.00.
The latest 2000 Vintage may be even better than the 1994 and the
current 2000 Graham's Vintage Port (which received a 98 point rating)
sells right now for about $85.00. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to
figure out where the price will end up for it ten years from now.
To enjoy a Vintage Port, since it throws sediment in the bottle, there are
a few steps you should follow before you open it. You should stand it
upright for at least 24 hours before opening it to let all of the sediment
settle to the bottom. Then when you open it, you should pour it into a
decanter before serving it. A decanter is a large glass wine container
made for letting old wines breathe before serving. You should also light
a candle and place it below the neck of the bottle as you pour it into the
decanter. This way you can see when the sediment has reached the neck
and stop pouring. Remember to pour slowly during this process.
Sediment won’t kill you if you consume it, but it tastes like caca!
I recommend serving Port at a moderate temperature between 60 and 64
degrees in a small dessert glass. I think that once you try a few good
ones, you will grow to love them just as I have. Some winemakers have
even released some exciting styles of Port made with Chocolate. You’ll
just have to taste them to believe it!
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