Since the Romans introduced wine to the Iberian Peninsula in the 1st century BC it has been made in Portugal and the Douro Valley. By the beginning of the 17th century, more than one million cases of wine were shipped down the Douro River to Oporto each year.

Towards the middle of the 17th century Britain had one of her habitual falling-outs with France. British subjects were subsequently advised that not drinking French wine equated to loyalty to the Crown! Hence a wine was needed to replace claret and thus port (named after Oporto, the city at the mouth of the Douro River) was born. At first these coarse wines merely stabilised with brandy, were not overly in demand.

The establishment of the first great port wine companies, new winemaking techniques and the Methuen Treaty signed in 1703 between Great Britain and Portugal, all contributed to the development of the port wine industry. The treaty probably contributed even more so as it guaranteed mutual aid in times of crises and gave preferential rates to British textiles in Portugal and Portuguese wines in Britain.

By the mid-1700’s more wine was made as the port we know today-a rich, fruity wine with some sweetness. In 1756 the Douro became the first wine region in the world to be legally delimited. Control of the region, its production volumes and techniques came under the control of the Portuguese government and a balance was struck between the growers, shippers and the government.

Port sales increased all through the 1800’s until the region was hit by phylloxera and re-planting took another 20 years. This did however, allow better vine selections to be planted and led to an increase in quality which continues to this day.

Port is a sweet fortified wine from the Douro Valley in northern Portugal; the Douro River runs from west to east, from Oporto on the Atlantic Coast through to Spain.

Only 40% of all the wines in the region may be made into port each year, with the governing body, the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP), decreeing each vineyard’s annual production limits.

WHAT IS PORT MADE FROM?
Twenty grape varieties are listed as approved although nearer 50 are actually permitted. The following five are the most important:

TOURIGA NACIONAL: gives grip, colour, intense black fruit and excellent tannins.

TINTA RORIZ: (Tempranillo) Offers firmness to a blend with sweet red fruit notes.

TOURIGA FRANCESA: imparts a degree of elegance and softness.

TINTA BARROCA: gives colour, structural complexity and a richness of body.

TINTA CÃO: is in decline due to its poor yields but offers wonderful flavour.

WHAT CAN BE ON THE LABEL?

PRODUCER’S NAME/BRAND NAMES: Dictates the style of the wine.

IVP-ACC EPTABLE GENERIC QUALITY

IVP-ACC EPTABLE AGE ST ATEMENT/BOTTLING DATE/VINTAGE

THE PORT REGION
Vines cover approximately 15.4 % of all the land in the region, with approximately 33,000 growers, each owning an average of 1 hectare of vines. Small farmers are very representative in the production of port wine and these small plots can be found throughout the region; with the larger vineyards located primarily in the Upper Douro.

The vineyards of the area are graded A to E; the higher the grade the more money the grower receives for the grapes. The grading system awards up to 70 % for : altitude and yield (the lower the better) and in Grade A sites the limit is 700 litres per 1000 vines; soil-schist is best while granite will attract penalty points; locality-Cima Corgo is best as it is drier, forcing the roots deeper; while the remaining 30 % is given for aspect, vine varieties, vine age and vineyard upkeep.

HOW IS IT MADE?
The grape harvest generally commences in the second or third week of September. Vinification is brief, lasting between 36-48 hours. Some quintas or farms-still prefer foot treading in old stone lagarès or troughs, which apart from the romance of the old-fashioned ways, provides the right amount of pressure for gentle extraction together with warmth, thereby aiding fermentation; others have moved on to mechanical pressing.

Red wine normally acquires its colour from the skins during fermentation but with the very short time port spends in contact with the skins-normally enough for a rosé-there is pressure to extract colour quickly. A couple of methods have evolved to help extract the colour and tannins.

PUMPING OVER: this method involves siphoning some of the fermenting wine from the vat’s bottom and hosing it back over the cap created by the skins on top. One of the challenges is maintaining enough pressure to continually break up the skins, so often this method does not achieve sufficient extraction.

AUTOVINIFICATION: an autovinifier consists of two connected tanks one on top of the other; the top one is open, whilst the bottom one is sealable. The grapes are crushed and then placed in the bottom tank, which is then sealed, and fermentation begins. Both the skins and CO2 rise to the top of the sealed tank, the pressure builds up and the must is forced into a tube at the side of the tank, leading to the upper open tank. At a pre-determined pressure a valve releases the CO2 and the contents of the open tank are gravity-fed back into the bottom tank. The release of the pressure forces the must up which sprays over the skins with considerable force thereby extracting colour.

Regardless of the colour extraction technique, after approximately half the sugar has turned to alcohol the wine is run off into quarter-full barrels of 77 % abv grape spirit; this kills the yeasts and stops the fermentation.

The wines remain at the winery until the following spring, before the heat of the summer-the Douro Bake-can ruin them. They will then be racked-siphoned off the decomposed yeasts and other sediment in a barrel-and despatched to the cooler climes of Vila Nova de

Gaia for classification according to their quality and ageing.

All port ages for a minimum of two years in barrel or vat before its evolution is finally decided.

PORT MATURATION
Port lends itself to ageing, both in wood and bottle, producing a number of differing styles within the closely defined IVP system. The IVP allows for three different types of port wine according to how it has been aged: ruby, tawny and white.

• RUBY PORTS: basic Ruby A blend of young wines generally aged in barrel or vat for two to three years.

• RESERVE RUBY: usually grapes from better vineyards with perhaps four to six years of age in wood. These wines normally have brand names avoiding any use of the word ruby.

• (FILTERED) LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE (LBV): wine of a single year, cask aged for four to six years; subsequently chill filtered, stabilised and bottled with a stopper cork.

• (UNFILTERED) LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE (LBV): very high- quality wine of a single year given a minimum of four years and a maximum of six years in cask. Bottled without fining or filtration and with a driven cork; it will continue to improve in bottle for up to a decade and will throw a sediment or crust.

• CRUSTED: essentially a blend of un-bottled vintage wines, the eldest of which will be about four years old. Cannot be released until it has had three full years in bottle and will continue to develop for up to 15 years. Lighter and ready to drink earlier than vintage ports these wines represent tremendous value.

• VINTAGE: declared only in exceptional years (three to four times a decade) achieving perfect balance in excellent growing conditions. A blend of fine wines from the best quintas, given two years in cask and bottled without fining or filtration ; can require 15–25 years ageing.

• QUINTA/BRANDED VINTAGE: as a vintage from one estate or in the case of the brands, two or more. These wines are normally somewhat lighter than a full vintage, can be produced every year and will develop well in bottle.

TAWNY PORTS

SIMPLE TAWNY: can be a blend of white and ruby or lesser wines that have been aged in cask.

TAWNY WITH AN AGE STATEMENT: aged in cask for at least seven years so it develops soft, silky characteristics. Can be labelled as Reserve, 10yo, 20yo, 30yo, or 40yo. These are made from very high-quality wines that have been set aside in undeclared years. The age does not always indicate the youngest wine in the blend, but indicates an average as many of these wines are regularly refreshed.

COLHEITA: a wine of a single vintage, aged in cask and not bottled until it is at least eight years old; essentially a vintage tawny.

WHITE PORTS

WHITE: from gouveio (verdelho) and malvasia fina grapes; white ports are generally fermented drier than the reds and are about three years old, although age statements are not allowed. The wines vary in style depending on the length of ageing and can be as low as 16.5 % in alcohol.