How Is Port Wine Made?
One of the first things people ask me when I mention to them my fascination with Port wine is how it’s made.
Why is it sweeter than other wines? Is it a dessert wine? Why does it taste so different from other wines?
Yes, Port wine is exceedingly complex. It’s no surprise then that the intensive winemaking process is just that: intensive.
But just like traditional wines, it all starts with grapes.
Port wine is a blend and there are many varieties of grapes — around 115 varieties authorized to make Port — that can go into making a single bottle.
We’ll go into the grapes in more detail in another blog post, but in the interest of purely summarizing how Port wine is made, it’s important to know that most bottles are made from four or five well-chosen varieties.
The Grapes Are Harvested, Selected, and Treaded
While the months of July, August, and September determine the quality and quantity of each vintage, the end of summer (or mid-September) marks the official start of the harvest.
The grapes are finally ready to be transformed into Port wine.
The grapes are hand-picked, selected, and then treaded — either traditionally (barefoot) or with the help of some modern machinery.
Fermentation Begins
Then begins the process of fermentation — in which sugars are converted into alcohol. BUT unlike other wines, this process is halted when the wine reaches its desired sugar content. A neutral grape spirit is added (typically around 75 percent ABV). The high alcohol content kills the yeast and thus stops fermentation.
A Fortified Wine Is Born
Adding this distilled grape spirit to the wine is a practice called fortification, a process that can be traced back to the 18th century when Port wines were fortified to help preserve them on their journey at sea, often from Portugal to the U.K. Fortification became a more universal practice by the mid-19th century.
The Ageing Process Starts
While Port wine is produced in the iconic Douro Valley, it’s aged in Vila Nova de Gaia in Porto, Portugal. Because making Port wine is so nuanced, it’s also highly regulated. Legally, all Port wines must be aged for a minimum of two years. Different styles age differently.
Simply put, different styles of Port wine are classified by two distinct aging processes: bottle-aged and wood-aged.
As I like to say, great things take time, and the best things are timeless.
Cheers,
Rebecca
p.s. One of my favorite resources for learning more about the world of Port is School of Port, an educational initiative from premium Port producers Symington Family Estates. This infographic below from School of Port offers a great overview of how Port wine is made.
