PORT WINE TYPES
THE ART OF MATURATION!
The wide variety of styles of Port Wine, with different flavours and aromas, derives from the knowledge in the art of aging. The wines can be divided into two types: the wines aged in wood (wood matured) and the wines aged in bottle (bottle matured). More recently, a new style of port wine, the Rosé, was introduced, which can be considered a wine without aging.
WOOD MATURED
Ruby style is a young wine with a very vivid ruby color, made with red grapes, that matures in wood for a short period of two or three years. It is a wine that retains its original features for a long time and whose flavours bring red fruits to memory.
Tawny style is a golden color wine, obtained from lots of wines with an average age of three years and various racking. It thereby forced oxidation and the golden colour achieved a characteristic of this type of wine. Another difference compared to Ruby Port wine is that Tawny is aged in smaller oak casks, increasing the contact of the wine with wood and with oxygen, making its color similar to amber, and the flavours to dried fruits, almonds or walnuts.
Reserve wines (common to Ruby and Tawny styles) are superior quality wines when compared to the traditional Port wine obtained from wine blending with average ages of five to seven years in wood. Tawny and Reserve wines may have more brownish colours, similar to the older wines. The Ruby Reserve can keep the ruby colour, despite the longer aging in wooden casks.
Wines with an Indication of Age are Tawny Port wines, rich and complex, which remain for very long periods in oak casks. They are extraordinary wines obtained by blending whose average age is the one stated (10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years), thus gaining complexity, and over the years the wines become more clear and liqueur, with characteristics and flavours of honey, cinnamon, chocolate and among others.
Harvest wines are Tawny Port wines that result from a single harvest, in a specific year and from a harvest, which is considered exceptionally good. They are superior quality wines that remain in cask seven or more years, until they are bottled. They have light colours and a rich, elegant and delicate flavour.
White Port Wines are Port wines made from white grape varieties that mature two or three years in wooden casks, and that may have sweeter or drier styles. They are young fruity wines, which always have some sweetness.
All these styles of rich, velvety and uniquely flavoured wines are ready to be enjoyed after being bottled.
BOTTLE MATURED
Vintage style (considered the preciousness of Port wine) is a wine from a single harvest of a single year of exceptional quality, produced exclusively from selected grapes. These wines can be enjoyed while young, after staying for about two years in wooden cask, but the slow bottle aging allows for a smoother and better quality wine. These wines can stay in the bottle for long periods, and may go beyond 40 years of aging – thus deepening their harmony and floral aromas.
The classification and recognition of a Port wine as Vintage can only be made by the Port Wine Institute (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto – IVDP)
Single Quinta Vintage style is a wine of excellent quality, which distinguishes itself by being, simultaneously, from a single exceptional year and a single vineyard, which gives it a uniqueness of character and unique qualities, that characterise the inheritance and tradition of the producer.
The LBV style (Late Bottled Vintage) is a quality wine from a single year of intense red colour, with a capacity of aging in bottle. These wines remain six years in wooden casks before being bottled, and mature at least three years in bottle.
The Crusted wines get their name by the characteristic deposit that forms at the time of bottle aging. They are great quality wines, originating in lots of various vintages, and capable of aging in bottle, after aging for 4 years in wood. They are one of best alternatives to the real Vintage.
WINES WITHOUT AGING
A new style of port wine, the Rosé, is a recent innovation. This smooth wine adds a wide choice of tastes and palates. Its pink colour is defined by a little intense maceration and is free from oxidation events during its storage. It is a young wine, which adds innovation to the supply of Port wines and wish intents to reach a most irreverent public.
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