Port Styles

Port is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of Northern Portugal. There are many styles, so here's a short recap ...

1. WHITE PORT
Made from white grapes. Most are bottled young but some whites are capable of wood age and may now be bottled with the same age indications as tawny Ports or as a colheita. Perfect for summer, serve it over ice with an Indian Tonic Water ... a lovely twist on a G&T!

2. ROSE/PINK PORT
Pioneered by Croft and adopted, not without controversy, by most shippers. Made by cooling fermenting grape must, which has had minimal skin contact. Serve over ice or use as a mixer.

3. RUBY PORT
Named after its youthful colour, a ruby Port will be a blend of wines from more than one year, aged in bulk for up to three years and bottled young to capture its strong, fiery personality.

3A. RESERVE RUBY PORT

A blend of premium-quality wines often aged for slightly longer than a basic ruby before bottling: giving a rich, satisfying Port.

3B. CRUSTED PORT

So-called because of the deposit that the wine throws in bottle, crusted Ports are a blend of wines from two or three harvests aged in large oak vats for up two years and bottled, like a vintage Port, without any fining or filtration. The only significant date on the label is the year of bottling. Most crusted Ports are ready to drink with five or six years of bottle age and will last for another decade. The British houses make a speciality of this style. Excellent value: crusted is poor man’s vintage Port!

3C. LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE PORT (LBV)

Late-Bottled Vintage means just what it says on the label: wine from a single year bottled between four and six years after the vintage. Produced in much larger volumes than either classic vintage or SQVP, two different styles of LBV Port have emerged. The modern style of LBV was founded by Taylor’s in the mid-1960s and quickly became a commercial success. These wines are aged in large vats and are subject to fining and filtration prior to bottling. This prevents the formation of a crust or sediment in bottle, thereby removing the need to decant. During the 1990s there was a counter-trend towards so-called ‘traditional’ or unfiltered LBV: wines aged in the same way but bottled without any filtration. Unfiltered wines are more structured and full bodied than LBVs that have been treated, and have the capacity to age for five to 10 years in bottle. They are bottled with a driven cork (as opposed to the stopper cork for LBVs bottled for immediate drinking). Since 2002, an LBV may also be sold as ‘bottle matured’. These wines must have been aged in bottle for a minimum of three years before their release. 

3D. COLHEITA PORT

Meaning ‘harvest’ in Portuguese, colheita is a wine from a single year, aged in wood for a minimum of seven years before bottling, by which time the wine begins to take on the characteristics of a tawny. Most colheitas are aged for much longer and, with careful management, may be bottled after 50 or 100 years. Two dates appear on the label: the year of harvest and the year of bottling. The latter is significant as the wine won’t generally improve in bottle (although after prolonged ageing in wood it won’t deteriorate quickly either). Once the preserve of a select group of so called ‘Portuguese shippers’ (Barros, Buremster Cálem, Kopke, Krohn) colheitas have been taken up enthusiastically by the British shippers in recent years, sometimes bottled under the name ‘single harvest’. Serve cellar-cool, like a tawny.

3E. VINTAGE PORT

The pinnacle of the Port pyramid: many shippers have built (and occasionally destroyed) their international reputation on their Vintage Port. Vintage Port is a fortified red wine, meaning its fermentation is stopped early by adding distilled spirit, resulting in a higher alcohol content and a sweet, fruity flavour profile. It's made from grapes harvested in a single, exceptional year, and only the best years are declared as "vintage" years by the Port producers. Vintage Ports are aged in oak barrels for a relatively short period (typically around two years) before being bottled. The wine is then bottled and intended for long-term aging in the bottle, often for decades, where it can develop further complexity and nuances. Due to the sediment that naturally forms during aging, Vintage Ports require decanting before serving to ensure a smooth drinking experience. Young Vintage Ports exhibit intense flavors of dark fruits, liquorice, spices, and earth, while mature Vintage Ports develop more complex flavors of jammy or dried fruits, spice, earth, caramel, and more. The Port producers decide when to declare a vintage, and the decision is ratified by the regulating body for the Port trade, the IVDP. 

4. TAWNY PORT

Sharing the pinnacle with vintage Port, it used to be said that whereas vintage is the ‘king’ of Ports, tawny is the ‘queen’. The ageing process is of vital importance: whereas a vintage Port will mature in large wooden vats and then in bottle, tawnies will mature in small casks (lodge pipes of 600- to 640-litres capacity). The wines undergo a steady process of controlled oxidation and esterification as the colour fades from deep, opaque ruby to orange-amber-tawny. The tasting and blending of an aged tawny is a continual process. Wines set aside initially are often marked with the year of the harvest but as the shipper makes up new blends followed by blends of blends, the characteristics of individual wines gradually meld into the housestyle. Tawnies may be bottled with an indication of age: 10, 20, 30 and 40 or over 40 years old being the categories officially permitted. These are obviously approximations and all wines have to be submitted for tasting by the IVDP for approval. I adore the intricacy and delicacy of a well-aged tawny, a 20 Year Old being my preference for its complexity offset by freshness. Port shippers often opt for a gently chilled tawny after lunch in the heat of the Douro: think of aged tawny as a summer alternative to a fireside glass of vintage or LBV. 

A reserve tawny is a blended wine that has spent about seven years in wood and is often excellent value compared to wines bottled with an indication of age.