Simply put, Port wine, often called simply “port,” is a Portuguese fortified wine. In Portuguese, it is called Vinho do Porto or Porto. Port wine is typically a sweet red wine that is often served with dessert.
Port wine is made from grapes grown in the Douro region of Portugal. For the wine to be called port, it must be fortified: this is done by adding a grape spirit called Aguardente, which stops the fermentation of the grapes.
Because fermentation is the changing of sugar to alcohol, this stop of fermentation causes the wine to remain sweeter, and because the spirit is more alcoholic than the wine at this stage, it also boosts the alcohol content. Port is traditionally stored and aged in barrels.
Wine Regions
The question “What is port wine?” is, as with most wine-related questions, as much a question of geography as it is one of methodology. In this case, the answer to the question is the Duoro River Valley, where port is traditionally made.
The Duoro River Valley is divided into several regions. The first is the Baixo Corgo, which is the westernmost zone. Because of the high rainfall, the grapes here are used to produce inexpensive ports. The second region is the Cima Corgo, which has less rainfall and more heat and sunlight in the summer, making the grapes more suitable for more expensive, aged ports. The third region is Duoro Superior, the easternmost zone in the region and also the driest. It is the least cultivated of the three areas.
Varieties of Port
While the answer to the question, “What is port wine?” may seem simple enough, there are actually several varieties.
Port that comes from Portugal can be categorized in two ways: either the port was aged in glass bottles with no air contact, which results in smoother wine, or the wine was matured in wooden barrels, which makes it more intense.
The most common variety of port is a sweet red wine, however port is also made in dry, semi-dry and white varieties. Tawny port is port made from red grapes and then aged in wooden barrels, which causes it to lose some of its red color and fade to a “tawny” brown or gold. These wines are suitable for dessert.
Ruby port is the cheapest variety of port: it is stored in glass bottles, which allows it to keep its red color. Pink port is relatively new, first released in 2008. It is more similar to rosé wine than it is to ruby port, with the grape skins removed earlier in the fermentation process to stop the wine from taking on too deep a color. White port is made from white grapes and can be quite dry, and the color can change so that it resembles a tawny port.
Port is now made worldwide, but the original Vinho de Porto from Portugal is the only variety of port or port-style wine that is allowed to be labeled as port under EU guidelines. However in the States, port-style wines that are made anywhere in the world can use the label (the labels Porto and Vinho de Porto are reserved for this original version.)
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