Port & Sweet wine - Enjoy harmonious moments

Port wine in Portugal

In the Regiao Demarcade the grapes for the Port

In 1756, almost a century later, the Marquês de Pombal had the boundaries of the Douro wine region marked with boundary stones to prevent forgery of the popular liqueur wine. From then on, only grapes from this area, called "Regiao Demarcada", were allowed to be used to make the basic wine for Port.


40 grape varieties for port wine production

The Douro Valley near Porto, covering 33,000 hectares, offers the ideal climatic conditions for the grapes of Port wine. A total of around 40 varieties of grape are authorised for the production of port wine, including Tinta Barroca, Touriga Francesca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela and Tinto Cão. For white port wine, the main varieties used are Malvasia Fina, Codega and Rabigato.

The vines thrive particularly well near the Atlantic Ocean. There, rainfall is higher than in the interior, temperatures are lower and the vineyards are less steep, and the soils consist mainly of slate and fertile soil.

The famous Quintas of the top producers in Cima-Corgo

In Cima-Corgo, around the town of Pinhão in Alijó county, about one third of port wine is produced. The climate is hotter and drier, the slopes are steep, rocky and barren. The famous quintas of top producers are located here. The Douro Superior region extends from São João da Pesqueira to the Spanish border. The climate there is extremely dry and therefore only a few places here produce wines for the port.


A whole cosmos of Portuguese port wines

Due to the abundance of the starting wines, there is a whole cosmos of red and white port wines and it is not easy to find your way around. As a general rule, good port wines have a fine balance of acidity and structure. Depending on their quality, they are aged for different lengths of time in barrels and in the bottle.  
Orientation in the port wine cosmos

These terms help you to find your way around the port wine cosmos:

1. Ruby Port is a blend of different vintages of red grapes. It is only bottled in a large barrel after at least two years of storage. Due to the large volume of the oak barrels, Ruby Port wines are wines that breathe little and therefore retain their dark colour longer. They are fruity in taste.

2. Tawny port (tawny = yellow-brown). The somewhat drier and lighter port wine is stored for two to three years in large barrels and then transferred to smaller barrels. Since the tawnies have more contact with the air there, they age faster. Their taste reminds of dry fruits, nuts and almonds.

3. Old Tawny: These wines age between 10 and 40 years in wooden barrels. Aged Tawnies have a much better taste than standard Tawnies.

4. White port is made from white grapes and is stored for about three years before it is ready and should be drunk cool. However, there are also white port wines with decades of storage and maturation.
With white port wines one also differentiates between different degrees of sweetness: Muito Doce / Very Sweet / Very Sweet, Doce / Sweet / Sweet, Meio Seco / Semi dry / Semi dry, Seco / Dry / Dry and Extra seco / Extra Dry / Very Dry.

5. Vintage Character Port: This Port is made of the best wines of different vintages only from the Cima Gorgo area.

6. Crusted Port: Blending of top wines from different vintages, which are stored in the barrel for two to three years. In the bottle, a sediment (crust) is formed later.

7. Vintage wines Colheita / Reservas: These wines are made from different grapes of one vintage and are stored in the barrel for at least 7 years before being bottled.

8. Vintage Port is a rare and expensive top class port wine. Only the best grapes from one vintage are bottled for a Vintage Port. The Port is first aged for 24 to 35 months in large oak barrels and then bottled. The wine matures further in the bottle and this can take many years, if not decades. It is then bottled unfiltered in black bottles. After ten to 12 years at the earliest, the vintage is mature.

9. Late Bottled Vintage Port ('LBV') is a blend of grapes from one vintage year and is aged in casks for four to six years before being bottled.

Whether white or red, very sweet or very dry, before Portuguese port wine is put on sale, it is examined by the Portuguese Port Wine Institute to guarantee its special quality.

In the end, Portuguese port wine is the perfect complement to many desserts. The almond, chocolate, coffee and citrus flavours of port harmonise particularly well with mousse au chocolate, chocolate creams or honey cake. But you should also enjoy it with cheese and walnuts.


Madeira and Moscatel from Portugal

One of the most famous dessert wines in the world is produced on the flower island of Madeira. It is also considered to be the most long-lasting wine in the world, which continues to improve with age. So it is no wonder that almost priceless vintages from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century are still on the market today. They still promise the best enjoyment and even an opened bottle can be kept almost indefinitely. You wonder how this is possible? Very simple: It is due to the probably worldwide unique production method.