Douro - the wine

‘For the wine to be good, it has to hear the squeaking of the Espadela.’

The grapes 
The Benefício 
The types of port 
    White Port 
    Ruby Port 
    Tawny Port 

The grape varieties

There can still be found more than a hundred different grape varieties in the Douro Valley. Of the approximately 80 varieties authorized for red ports and wine, the five (in italics in the table) are predominantly used for new plantings.

Overview of single grape varieties

The Benefício - the fortification

The process which turns the Douro wine into actual port is the benefício: the infusion of the fermenting must with high-proof brandy.

It is no longer possible to say exactly when this practice began. What probably began with small additions of brandy - to increase stability during transport - probably only accuired its current proportions towards the middle/end of the 19th century. All though the legendary Baron Forrester was still strictly against any addition of brandy in the wine around 1850.

Today, the fermentation of all port wines - whether its red or white, vintage or ruby - is stopped by adding 76-78% brandy. The time of stopping is determined by the remaining residual sugar, or in other words the sweetness of the port wine, and also the quantity that has to be added. The more the wine has already fermented, the less spirit is added. After all, there is already a higher alcohol content from the fermentation and port wine must - by law - have between 18 and 21 % vol. as a final product.

The port wine types

Not all ports are the same. Anyone who has had the opportunity to taste different ports will be able to confirm this. The different characters of port wines - and therefore the different types - are the result of a number of factors:

    - The grape varieties/the base wine used
    - The ageing process
    - Vintage wine / vintage cuveé
    - Degree of sweetness  
   - The producers style

The grape varieties or base wines used for the port, determines its depth, color, extract, ageing potential, etc. Simple Ruby's and Tawny's, for example, are both vintage cuveé's and are around 3 years old. The Tawny's are often made a little drier by the producers, but the selection of the base wines results in ports of (preferably) different types.

Differences in ageing result from the duration and the type of container. During barrel ageing, the wine undergoes micro-oxidation, which is stronger in small barrels than in larger ones due to the ratio of surface area to content.

Vintage ports reflect the character of the respective harvest. With a vintage cuvée, on the other hand, an attempt is made to blend a port that is as consistent as possible by carefully selecting the base wines from different vintages.

The sweetness remaining in the port can easily be regulated by the time of vinification. Depending on the style of the producer and the type of port wine, the cellar master decides how much (natural) sugar should remain in the wine.

Overview of sweetness levels

Each producer has his own style, which he can achieve by regulating the factors mentioned above. The distillate used is completely as neutral as possible, or a spirit with its own character (as far as the IVP allows) also distinguishes the styles of the producers.

White port

Today, the port wines produced from the region's white grape varieties are essentially distinguished by their degree of sweetness, which ranges from “extra dry” (extra dry, extra seco) to “sweet” (sweet, doce). White ports, which are characterized by longer ageing in barrel, are becoming increasingly rare. Even the occasional white vintage ports produced in the past seems to have been drunk up, and are now very rare. / Today (2019), around 20 years after I posted this description online, I have to make an urgent correction: Producers are indeed putting white ports back into wooden barrels. There is now a considerable selection of white Ports with an age statement, and also a number of white - but mostly younger - Colheita Ports.

The red varieties can be divided into two groups: Ruby and Tawny ports.

Ruby port

Ruby red to purple - sometimes almost black - ports that were bottled young. Their aromas are characterized by fresh fruits such as wild berries, morello-cherries, etc.

Ruby

The simple Ruby is a ruby-red port wine that is around 3 years old. It is blended from wines of different vintages and has therefore no vintage indication.

Premium Ruby (previously "Vintage Character")

The Premium Ruby or Ruby Reserve is also a vintage cuvée. Higher quality base wines are used than for Ruby, which are bottled after around 4-5 years of ageing. Darker in color and deeper in taste, it is marketed as “Reserva” or under a brand name (e.g. Graham's “Six Grapes”).

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV)

A wine from a single vintage which label is marked with both the year of harvest and the year of bottling. By law, it must be bottled after four years at the earliest and six years at the latest. It has become increasingly common to find the inscription “Traditional” on the label. These wines have been bottled directly from the barrel without fining and filtering - like a vintage - and continue to develop in the bottle. They should be decanted after a long period in the bottle. (Attention! The IVP has now banned the addition “Traditional”; younger LBVs - such as 1998/99 vintages - are no longer allowed to carry this indication on the label. Now you will find the inscription “unfiltered”).

Vintage

Vintage port is considered the king of port wines. It comes from a single harvest and must be bottled after 2-3 years, in order to mature in the bottle for years and decades towards its peak. In its youth, the wine is dark purple - sometimes almost black - but as it ages, it loses colour and becomes brighter and brighter into a delicate orange. Its aromas are similar: initially powerful, pompous and often still disharmonious, it becomes increasingly delicate and harmonious over time as alcohol, sweetness, extract and tannins slowly marry. During this development, the wine form plenty of sediment, so vintage ports should therefore always be decanted.

It is up to the producer to decide from which vintage he chooses to bottle a port as a vintage - and to declare it. However, the Port Wine Institute checks the quality of the declared quantity and decides whether the corresponding guarantee seals are awarded.

The big shippers usually only declare a vintage port in the very best years. If the quality of the vintage is not quite as good, they often bring a single-quinta vintage onto the market. These wines then comes exclusively from one of the producer's top vineyards, as it is often only just possible to produce wines of the same quality there.

Smaller houses - especially those consisting of only one quinta - rarely distinguish such vintages.

As wine is (and has to be!) almost always about economic interests, the decision to declare it does not only depend on the stock and the current market situation.

Up to and including 1970, Vintage Port was also shipped to the UK in barrels and bottled there.

Tawny port

The English word ‘tawny’ means ‘tawny-coloured’ and stands for lighter wines characterised by barrel ageing. With increasing ageing, the wines loses its red, become tobacco-coloured and finally brownish; very old tawnys often gain a light olive green colour.

Tawny wines are usually somewhat slimmer than Ruby wines and tend towards dried fruit flavours such as figs and dates. Once bottled, they do not develop much further in the bottle, and are therefore intended for consumption in the near future.

Tawny

A wine aged for around three years, which is usually characterised more by the choice of base wines than by barrel ageing, as to give the wine a tawny character.

Premium Tawny

n this tawny - around 7 years old and usually sold under a brand name (e.g. Dona Antonia from Ferreira) - the character created by barrel ageing is already clear.

10 Years old, 20 Years old, 30 Years old , over 40 Years old Tawny

Vintage cuvées whose chemical and organoleptic (odour, taste, etc.) characteristics must correspond to the age statement. As with a premium tawny - and corresponding to a branded champagne - different wines are blended in such a way that a certain house or brand style is achieved with each new bottling.

Colheita

The vintage tawny. A barrel ageing period of seven years is prescribed - it may not be bottled earlier. There is no upper limit; only the IVP can raise qualitative objections. As a rule, they only become ‘real tawny’ after ten to twelve years in the barrel (the bottling date must be stated). This category - predominantly cultivated by Portuguese producers - can produce outstanding wines; Colheitas can be extremely fine, harmonious and sometimes overwhelming. They should therefore not be neglected compared to vintages; some flavours find their revelation in this style of port wine.

To the Douro wines in our store

To the ports in our store