Ports Tawny Colheita LBV Vintage Crusted Ruby

Port is a mutated wine from Portugal

Port wine is produced only in the Upper Douro Valley, around 100 kilometers from the city of Porto, where the large trading houses are located in Villa Nova de Gaia.

It is somewhat to Colbert, then Prime Minister of King Louis XIV, that we owe the Port. Indeed he proclaimed an embargo against England and the English, deprived of our Aquitaine wines, had to turn to Port wines. These wines do not support the journey. An English merchant Sir Beardsley thinks of adding pure brandy to prevent it from turning. It is in this form of mutated wine that we know Port.

The treading of the grapes in Lagares (large concrete vats) to the sound of accordions is still carried out for folklore but also for the best ports (Vintage and LBV).

The mutage takes place during fermentation, when the must reaches 7 ° to 8 °, it is added a wine brandy grading at 77 °. This addition of alcohol has the effect of stopping any fermentation. The sugar contained in the must at this time, which would have quietly been transformed into alcohol during alcoholic fermentation, is then found to be residual sugar (which explains the sweetness of Ports). There are two main families of port. Oxidative Ports (Tawny, Colheita ..) and Reductive Ports (LBV, Vintage, Crusted).

Oxidative Ports are aged in casks and then in barrels (pipas) and are therefore in contact with air through the wood. Oxidation of the wine is then possible. These already oxidized Ports can easily be stored for a year once the bottle is opened.

Reductive Ports are aged for 2 years in casks and then bottled and continue to improve. These wines have a very long aging potential for 20 to 40 years. These Ports which have not undergone oxidation do not keep for long once the bottle is opened, like the wines we know.

Ruby Port is at the border between the two types of Port because it spends 4 to 6 years in cask before being bottled. It is fruity and marked by light oxidative notes.

Some beautiful Houses of Porto

We offer a wide range of Ports including Ramos Pinto et son Lagrima, Taylor's, Burmester, Andresen, Barros, Churchill's, Sao Pedro, Quinta do Tedo.