🍷 Port

Port is a fortified wine from the Douro Demarcated Region in northern Portugal. Its strength is 19–22 % (light dry white from 16.5 %). Fermentation is stopped by adding grape spirit, so at least 17.5 g/l of sugar stays in the wine. The name Port is protected in the EU, in the register since 24.12.1991.

The region of 250,000 ha is ringed by mountains and divides into three sub-regions: Baixo Corgo, Cima Corgo and Douro Superior. Vineyards lie on stony soils, on steep slopes in terraces. Average annual temperature runs from 11.8 to 16.5 °C. Yields are up to 55 hl/ha for reds and 65 hl/ha for whites.

The spirit used for fortification is 77 % vol and approved by the IVDP. The styles: Vintage — from one exceptional harvest; LBV — from one harvest, certified in the fourth year after the harvest and bottled by 31 December of the sixth year; Colheita — at least 7 years in wood; Crusted, Reserve, Tawny, Ruby, Rosé and white. Residual sugar runs from «extra-seco» at 17.5–40 g/l to «muito doce» above 130 g/l. The first customs record of «vinho do Porto» is dated 1678, the Methuen treaty 1703, and the General Company for the Agriculture of the Vineyards of the Alto Douro was founded on 10.09.1756.

How Port differs from other wines. Ruby, tawny and vintage are styles of the same wine, not different strengths. In an ordinary wine fermentation runs to the end; in Port it is stopped with grape spirit, so sugar stays and strength rises to 19–22 %. The name Port is protected, so a wine from elsewhere cannot be called that, even if its style is similar.