The World of Port dates back to the1600s when the wines of Douro were, politely said, a little on the rough side. Popularity of Douro wines increased when the access to French wines became increasingly difficult during war time. British demand for wine was the catalyst in creating this wonderful drink.

Brandy was added to the barrels of sweet red wine in order to preserve it during shipping. The idea was to stop any further fermentation in the barrels as there was residual sugar left in the wine. (Adding alcohol to wine is one way to arrest any further fermentation.) The result on receipt was a beautiful sweet “fortified” wine. It is unclear when this process of adding brandy to the wine started but it is still employed today.

Styles of Port:

Vintage Port is the finest of all Ports. Made in a single year, cask aged for two years before bottling, never filtered , which will lead to sediment.  Heavy filtration can numb a wine and remove a lot of its flavour. These ports can age in the bottle for decades and will need to be decanted before consumption. Vintage ports are made only in the finest years with each port house declaring their vintages independently.

Late Bottle Vintage (LBV) are made from wines of a single vintage aged in a cask for up to six years, then bottled. They go through a light filtration and can be drunk immediately.

Crusted Ports are made from wines from several vintages bottled without filtration. They form sediment in the bottle and need to be decanted.

Tawny Ports are a blend of wines from several different aged casks. They are often a lighter, brown colour and often possess nutty and dried berry flavours. Most often they are sold by the average age of the blend: 10, 20, 30 and sometimes 40 years old.

Ruby Port is the most basic style which has been tank-aged instead of barrel-aged, blended, filtered and then bottled. The best are labelled Reserve or Vintage Character Port.

Most Port is made with red grapes with the exception of White Port.  It is made with white grapes and is less sweet than red. Cask aging gives it a golden hue and it is usually served chilled as an aperitif.

Get out there and enjoy some port. Local stockists will provide a wonderful arrangement of unusual ports starting at around £10. Try Henderson’s or Appellation Wines.

(Sandy Ramsay, W’est Solutions)

W’est Solutions is a wine tasting /wine and customer service training and consulting company working with corporate groups, hotels/restaurants and private individuals.

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