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Port and Portugal
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I had the good fortune to spend some time in Portugal last month. It was my first trip to that beautiful, friendly country. Portugal, by virtue of its position on Europe's Western edge, gets fewer travelers than other Mediterranean places. But, if you get the chance to go, you will find it generally uncrowded and prices for food and hotels are surprisingly moderate.
I spent time in Porto, Portugal's second largest city, which faces the big port lodges across the river Douro. Porto is in the northwest corner of Portugal in the heart of Vinho Verde country. From there it is a short drive to Port country - some of the most beautiful and spectacular landscape in the world.
Unlike most of the world's wine producing countries, Portugal's wine reputation has been built around its own indigenous grape varieties and its classic fortified wines, Port and Madeira. It is a country with contrasting climatic conditions, from the cooler regions of the Vinho Verde in the North with its Atlantic influence, to the parched climate of the Alentejo in the South. Portugal is the seventh largest wine producing country in the world and it is interesting to find ultra modern wineries right alongside small traditional wineries, where wines are still fermented in tall clay pots and grapes are trodden by foot in lagares (a traditional rectangular stone or cement trough).
The Douro Valley is remote and the landscape is dramatic and spectacular. I took the train from Porto to Quinta de Vargellas (owned by Taylor's) which is about 3 hours east of Porto. The tracks follow the Douro River and the hills fall steeply down to the water's edge. The valley becoming less populated and more wild the further inland one travels. The land is given over to terraces of vines and, to a lesser extent, olive groves. I have not seen or taken a photograph that does it justice.
The vineyards are dizzyingly steep. The vines must be planted on tiers of walled terraces, towering one above the other like the steps of the Pyramids, the product of centuries of Herculean labor. To make new terraces in this rocky terrain, dynamite is often needed to blast away great outcrops of schist, the slate-like stone which forms the bedrock of the Douro's best vineyard soils. The vine roots can dive 40 feet down through rock fissures in search of water, draining the very essence of the soil into every grape.
Many companies still use foot treading of the grapes in making their ports, but with the decline in population in the region, it has been necessary to find ways to reduce the dependency on a large labor force through technological innovation. However, the traditional method of treading the grapes in the lagar produces the finest Vintage ports. It was interesting to me that all of Taylor's Vintage Port is produced using this traditional method. It is a much more serious business than I imagined. The treader's work in 4 hour shifts, approximately 20 persons to a lagar. The first two hours of treading are very regimented, working arm-in-arm in total silence, with the leader calling out "esquerda, direita" (left, right). After two hours of this, a break is taken, a musician or two comes in and the last two hours are spent dancing (doing the "chicken dance", stomping the grapes and singing the same traditional songs that Portuguese vineyard workers have been singing for probably the last 100 years or so). The last two hours are a lot of fun as I got to do some treading while I was there.
Port
The best-known wine from Portugal is, without doubt, Port. There are almost 30,000 growers in the Douro Valley involved in Port production, mainly growing grapes for sale to the major Port Houses. Each vineyard is classified on an official scale according to its location, aspect, soil, etc. and grape prices are set according to that scale.
Port is basically wine fortified with brandy or neutral grape spirit. This is added prior to the natural cessation of fermentation, so the wine is always sweet, as the addition of the strong alcohol kills the yeast converting the sugar into alcohol (the process of fermentation). The eventual alcohol content is high (typically 20%), thanks to the brandy that has been added. Most Port is red, although some firms also produce a small amount of white Port.
Styles
Vintage Port: Port vintages are declared depending on the quality of the vintage, some houses declaring much more frequently than others. In general, a vintage is declared about three times each decade. A declared vintage means that the Port house feels the wine is of the necessary quality to age well in bottle. They may need upwards of fifteen years before they are ready, and may last for decades more. This is the finest quality level of Port.
Single Quinta Port: Most houses have quintas (vineyards, such as Quinta de Vargellas) where they source their best fruit. In non-declared years they will release the wine from the quinta as a single quinta wine. These wines can be excellent value, frequently close to vintage quality, occasionally better.
Late Bottled Vintage Port: This is wine from a single vintage, aged in oak for 4 to 5 years and then bottled. This prolonged ageing results in a wine ready to drink at a younger age.
Tawny Port: Wine aged in oak for a long time, resulting in a tawny color. The age will be stated on the label, frequently ten or twenty years, often thirty or even forty years. My advice: this is the category to focus on. The work and ageing is already done for you! Plus, once opened, these bottles can last for over three weeks.
White Port: An aperitif wine, varying in style.
Other styles: Ruby is a young and simple style. Vintage Character is a Port blended to resemble a vintage wine, and Crusted Port is a blend of several Vintage Character Ports.
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