Port

Port (or “Porto”) wines are fortified wines produced exclusively from grapes harvested in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. They’ve been produced for more than 300 years, and draw their name from the seaport city of Porto, where they’ve been transported down river and packaged for export since the late 1600s.

A port is produced in much the same way as any table wine, up until the point where a type of grape brandy (aguardente) is added to stop fermentation, leaving more residual sugar in the wine as well as boosting the alcohol content (to around 20%, compared to around 12% for table wines).

Port is made in a number of styles. Tawny and Colheita ports are aged in wooden barrels over long periods of time. Tawnys are a blend of several vintages; a Colheita is a Tawny from a single vintage. They are sweet or medium dry and generally consumed as dessert wines. Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage and Ruby ports are all bottle-aged with no exposure to air, producing a smoother, less tannic wine. Vintage ports are made entirely from grapes of a declared vintage and are the most renowned type of port. Late Bottled Vintage ports are wines that were originally destined for bottling as a vintage port, but left in the barrel for longer than had been planned. And Ruby ports are the cheapest and most extensively produced, stored in concrete or stainless steel tanks prior to bottling.