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Making Port
Wine
Some wines are easy to make at home, like
watermelon wine, strawberry wine, and blueberry
wine. However, ease is not the case when one is
making port wine.
Port wine is one of the more difficult wines
to make—above all, it takes a lot of patience
to see the process through to the end. However,
once the final product has been completed, you
will have a classy, delectable wine to serve
with desserts and cheeses.
Portugal
Parentage
Making port wine began in
Portugal in the mid fifteenth century. It
originated in the northern Douro Valley.
However, after the Methuen Treaty of 1703, the
port wine making process was introduced to
England, where it has been popular ever
since.
Practice
And Patience
Making port wine is a lengthy
process, and it takes practice to get it right.
To begin, grapes are picked, smashed, and
placed in a machine which chops them into
miniscule pieces. The grapes remain in the
machine for twenty-four hours, where they begin
the fermentation process.
Fermentation must be stopped after half of
the grapes’ sugar has gone through the process.
This is done using a mixture of wine and clear
brandy, which kills the yeast in the wine, thus
ending the fermentation process. The resulting
port wine is sweet, and only about twenty
percent alcohol.
Distinctive
Styles
There are many different styles of port
wine; they fall into two main categories that
are related to the two different port
winemaking processes. These two categories are
Cask aged and Bottle aged—making this one
simple change results in different flavors and
characters. Some of the different styles of
port wine include: White Port, Aged Tawny Port,
Vintage Character Port, Young Tawny Port,
Single Quinta Vintage Port, Vintage Port, Late
Bottled Vintage Port, Traditional Late Bottled
Vintage Port, Ruby Port, Crusted Port, and
Garrafeira Port.
Popular
Picks
Regardless of the many different styles of
port wine, there are a few that remain popular
among wine lovers. Such wines include: Smith
Woodhouse Vintage Character Port, W. & J.
Graham's Tawny Port, Taylor Fladgate Tawny
Port, Niepoort Vintage Port, Quinta do
Infantado Single Quinta Vintage Port, and
Adriano Ramos-Pinto Late Bottled Vintage Port.
These wines are classic selections and have a
universal and lasting appeal.
Worth
Your While
Though making port wine is
more difficult and time consuming than other
types, making it is still time worth spent. In
the end, the quality of the result will exceed
your expectations.
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