Port, Sherry, and Fortified wines Flashcards
What are fortified wines?
Fortified wines are manipulated through the addition of neutral grape spirit, in order to strengthen the base wines for the purpose of added body, warmth, durability or ageworthiness.
What are the three general method of fortfication?
A wine’s fermentation may be arrested through the addition of spirit while sugars remain (as in the case of Port) or the wine may be fortified after the fermentation has concluded (as in the case of Sherry).
The latter method produces a dry fortified wine, although the winemaker may restore sweetness by the addition of sweetened wine or grape syrup.
The third method, in which grape must is fortified prior to fermentation, produces a mistelle rather than a fortified wine. This category was once exclusively known as vins de liqueur (liqueur wines), but the EU has extended its definition to include all fortified wines.
Who oversees the development of Port?
the Douro Port Wine Institute, or Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) a regulatory body that absorbed the powers of the Commissão Interprofissional da Região Demarcada do Douro in 2003, which in turn replaced the Casa do Douro in 1995.
What does the IVDP do?
Today, the government-run IVDP supervises the promotion, production, and trade of all Porto and Douro DOP wines. Both growers and shippers must submit to its authority.
What is the law of third?
The IVDP requires Port houses to maintain compliance with the lei do terço (“law of the third”), a decree restricting sales of Port to one-third of a house’s total inventory annually. In addition, the IVDP guarantees label integrity and age designations, and samples all appellation wines for authenticity.
What is the beneficio authorization?
The IVDP grants each grower’s beneficio authorization—the maximum amount of wine that may be fortified in a given year—based on a matrix of twelve factors.
Each factor has a minimum and maximum point score associated with it, and there are a total of 2,361 points available. Vineyards that score over 1,200 are awarded an “A” grade, “B” vineyards score between 1,001 and 1,200 points, and so on through “I”—the lowest grade.
A-level sites are licensed to vinify the greatest percentage of Port, whereas vineyards classified G or lower cannot even produce Port.
Points are given based on 12 criteria, also known as the Moreira da Fonseca method.
Points are given based on 12 criteria. What is the criteria?
Seven soil and climate factors are scored: location, altitude, exposure, bedrock, rough matter, slope and shelter.
The next five factors relate to the vine itself: type of vine, planting density, yield, training system, and vine age.
Maximum yields in the Douro for red grapes are set at 55 hl/ha; for white grapes the maximum yield is 65 hl/ha.
What are the main red grapes for Port?
For Porto, the preferred red grapes are Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cão, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela, Tinta Francisca, Bastardo and Mourisco Tinto. They must constitute a minimum 60% of the blend.
What are the main white grapes for Port production?
Preferred white Port grapes include Gouveio, Malvasia Fina, Viosinho, Rabigato, Esgana Cão, and Folgasão.
What are the vineyards like in the Douro Valley?
Many of the Douro’s vineyards are planted on steep, terraced slopes—although one new planting system abandons traditional terraces in favor of planting vines in vertical rows leading directly up the slopes (Vinhos ao Alta). Patamares—wider terraces that can be navigated by tractor—are more common. Grapes are harvested by hand.
What are lagares?
Traditionally, grapes were foot-crushed and fermented in low, open granite troughs called lagares. Smaller quintas may continue this practice, sometimes set to music for the benefit of both worker and tourist, but most large Port houses have switched to more modern means.
What is Beneficio?
the fortification of wine with spirit—occurs when approximately one-third of the sugar content has been converted to alcohol. The wine is fortified to 19-22% abv by the addition of aguardente—“burning water”—a 77% abv neutral grape spirit. The spirit is raw and uncomplicated; it is a young, fiery alcohol that contributes nothing to the character of the wine, rather it imparts the robustness necessary for the new Port to reach a proper maturity.
What is a pipe?
A pipe, the traditional barrel used for both aging and shipping Port wine, varies in size: pipes used in the Douro Valley usually hold 550 liters, whereas pipes in Vila Nova de Gaia may often contain 620 liters.
The size of a pipe used for shipping Port is set at 534.24 liters, although pipes used for shipping Madeira or Marsala are smaller.
What is Ruby Port?
Ruby Port is often aged in bulk (in wood, cement, or stainless steel) for two to three years prior to bottling. The wine is uncomplicated, deeply colored, and inexpensive. Ruby Port does not carry a vintage date.
What is Ruby Reserve Port?
Ruby Reserve, or Premium Ruby, replaced the term “Vintage Character” and offers more complexity and character than a basic Ruby Port.
What is Vintage Port?
Vintage Port is the most expensive style of Port to purchase and constitutes approximately 1-3% of production. A Port house will usually declare a vintage year only in exceptional harvests—often a given house will, on average, declare a vintage three years out of every decade. Vintage Port must be authorized by the IVDP, and is aged in cask before being bottled by July 30 of the third year after harvest. Vintage Port will continue to develop in the bottle for decades, shedding brash fruit in favor of more complex attributes, although many bottles are consumed in their youth—particularly in the US. Mature Vintage Port requires decanting, as it will develop a significant deposit in the bottle. Quality is a chief factor in determining a vintage year, and a house will utilize the best vineyards available to it when creating a vintage blend, yet market concerns also play a role. Back-to-back, or “split” vintages are rare, as few shippers want to flood the market lest prices plunge.
What is Single Quinta Vintage Port?
A single quinta Vintage Port is the product of one estate’s harvest. Often, if a Port house cannot confidently declare a vintage, it may nonetheless showcase the fruit of one of its better estates as a vintage wine. In a vintage year, such an esteemed estate would usually provide the backbone of a shipper’s Vintage Port. Examples include Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha, Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas, and Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim. Many smaller quintas release their own vintage wines as well. Single quinta wines are made in the same fashion as other Vintage Ports, and will improve with additional bottle age.
What is Late-Bottled Vintage Port?
Late-Bottled Vintage Port (LBV) spends between four and six years in cask prior to bottling. Thus, the wines obtain some of the mellowed tones of a Tawny Port, while retaining the youthful fruit and directness of a Ruby Port. LBV Port is always the product of a single vintage, but quality may vary greatly. The majority of LBV wines are filtered prior to bottling; they will not require decanting and do not usually improve with additional bottle age. However, superior styles may achieve quality nearer that of a true Vintage Port and improve with bottle age, although they will always reach full maturity sooner than a Vintage Port. Such styles are often unfiltered, and may be labeled as Envelhecido em Garrafa, indicating an additional minimum three years of bottle aging.
What is Tawny Port?
Many wines labeled as Tawny Port do not undergo the extensive cask aging that is critical to the style, but are simply paler wines—due to the provenance of grapes, a less-thorough extraction, or the addition of white Port to the blend. Lesser vineyards and vintages constitute these wines, which are a popular aperitif in France.
What is Reserve Tawny?
Reserve Tawny Port ages for at least seven years prior to bottling. Reserve Tawny wines are blended from several vintages, and retain some youthful freshness while gaining a hint of the creamy, delicate nature of a true old Tawny. Tawny Port will not improve with additional bottle age.
What is Tawny with Indication of Age?
Tawny Port may be labeled as 10, 20, 30, or 40 Years Old. These wines show a progressively more concentrated and developed character, reaching a pronounced oxidative, rancio state by forty years of age. Tawny Ports that display an age indication result from high-quality fruit, and are matured in seasoned wood. Typically, such Ports are racked once annually, often freshened with additional spirit or wine as evaporation takes its natural course, and are finally blended together prior to bottling. The age indication is not an average age of the blended wines in the bottle, but rather an approximation: for example, the IVDP deems a Port labeled “10 Year Old Tawny” to taste like a 10 Year Old Tawny, regardless of the wine’s actual age. Many Port connoisseurs prefer Tawny Port at 20 years of age, when the balance of fruit and mature characteristics is even, the spirit is finely integrated and the wine is not overtly oxidized.
What is Colheita Tawny?
Colheita Tawny Port is a vintage-dated Port that spends a minimum of seven years in cask—many stay in cask for decades. Some producers, such as Calem, a Port house that specializes in the Tawny style, will not bottle Colheita Tawny Ports until an order is received. Thus, Colheita Tawny Port from a particular vintage may vary in character from bottle to bottle.
Where is Madeira?
a subtropical island rising sharply from the Atlantic nearly 625 miles off the coast of Portugal
Where can Madeira be made?
Madeira DOP wines may be produced on Madeira itself, or on the neighboring Porto Santo, the only other inhabited isle in the Madeira archipelago.
