If you are heading to Portugal, you will want to try the flavours, and that includes the wine. The first time you sit down to dinner somewhere decent, you will almost certainly be offered Port. No need to worry about the choice. But it is worth knowing what you are drinking.
Port is a fortified wine from the Douro Valley, along the river that runs through northern Portugal. The US, Spain and Australia all make similar fortified wines, but they are not permitted to call them Port.
Here is how it works.
How Port Is Made
Every wine involves some judgement. Port comes down to timing.
It is made from around 80 permitted grape varieties, most of them growing along the Douro. The best known are Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cão and Touriga Franca.
Partway through fermentation, while there is still plenty of sugar left, a neutral grape spirit is added. That kills the yeast and stops the ferment dead, which is why a Port ends up both sweet and strong. Get the timing wrong and you have something else entirely.
It is then aged, often in oak, sometimes for decades. The oak gives vanilla and cedar, and slow contact with oxygen rounds the whole thing out.
The Four Styles
Ruby, Tawny, Late Bottled Vintage and Vintage.
Ruby is the most common and the easiest to get on with. It is aged in a way that limits oxygen contact, which keeps the colour deep red and the fruit fresh.
Late Bottled Vintage is Ruby taken further. The grapes all come from a single year and the wine spends four to six years ageing before bottling. Ready to drink the moment you open it, which makes it the practical choice.
Tawny gets more oxygen in cask. That is what fades the colour towards brown and brings out the nutty, caramel character. The age on the label, ten years, twenty, is an average across the blend rather than a single vintage.
Vintage is the rare and expensive one. It is only declared in years the producer thinks are good enough, which happens perhaps three times a decade. Bottled young and left to age in bottle, sometimes for forty years or more.
How To Drink It
Serve it cool, around 12 to 16 C. A Tawny takes a slightly deeper chill than a Ruby.
Pour small. This is 19 to 22% alcohol, so 60ml is a serving.
Once open, a Tawny will keep for weeks in the fridge, because the oxygen has already done its work. A Vintage will not. Drink that within a day or two.
Blue cheese is the classic pairing and it is classic for a reason. Chocolate works too.
Where We Come In
We do not sell Port, and for that you want a Portuguese specialist.
But if what appeals is the weight and the sweetness, T'ga za Jug is the closest thing we carry. It is a semi-dry red rather than a fortified wine, so it is a different drink, but it has warmth and a touch of sweetness from late-picked fruit. The rest of the range is on the all wines page.