Love Port? You’ll love Porto. Don’t have a clue what port wine tastes like? Now’s your chance to try it for yourself. Fortified wine is delicious stuff but there’s no law says you have to drink it neat. A long, chilled glass of Port and lemonade is totally delicious. So what’s it all about?
About Port wine
Port and Sherry are fortified wines, made from wine with distilled spirits added during the process, often brandy. This boosts the alcohol content and brings the fermentation process screeching to a halt, leaving a tantalising sweetness behind. Sherry is from Spain, Port is from Portugal, and they’re made from different grapes.
Port is produced in the Douro Valley in north Portugal. Usually a sweet red wine, you can also get white port and dry and semi-dry versions perfect for those without a sweet tooth. You never know, your visit to Porto might see you hooked on Port, your new favourite tipple when you get home and a great way to bring those magical holiday memories flowing back.
How was port invented?
Port was invented by accident. In the late 1600s England and France were engaged in a trade war. The king banned the import of French goods, including wine, but because he was married to the sister of a Portuguese king, wines imported from Portugal filled the gap.
It took a lot of skill and experience to make wine in Portugal and the English and Scottish people who moved to the Douro valley to make it weren’t very good at it. A lot of the exported wines re-fermented on the voyage, arriving undrinkable. Then some bright spark or other realised adding brandy to the wine stopped all that, killing the remaining yeast to leave the drink a lot sweeter and stronger than ordinary wine. The trend quickly spread and the fortified wine soon became incredibly popular.
It was eventually named ‘port’ in the late 1600s after Porto, the bustling sea port on the estuary of the Douro river, simply because that was where most of the drink was exported from. The barrels of port were carried down the Douro river from the quintas on special ‘Rabelos’ boats, then aged in caves just outside Porto at Vila Nova de Gaia.
Port-like wines are made in the USA and Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, India and South Africa as well as Spain and Portugal. But unless it comes from Portugal, it can’t be called port.
The Douro valley is perfect for grapes
The sloping sides of the Douro valley are perfect for growing grapes. They make the wine there and also fortify it on site using a grape spirit called aguardente, a bit like brandy.
As a rule, port grapes are small and dense, giving growers strong flavours rugged enough to survive the long aging process. Stored in barrels and aged for a number of years, the flavour is as unique as the north Portugal microclimate that nourishes it. The soil is also ideal for growing exotic goodies like olives and almonds.
The official centre for port production is the Pinhão and São João da Pesqueira area, a place with quaint wine estates called quintas cling to steep river valley slopes that fall away towards the water.
If you’re into geology you’ll be interested in the soil, which is particularly rich in pre-Cambrian schist and granite, very well-drained to keep the vine roots dry and safe from rot. The region is also protected from the salty air and winds that roar off the Atlantic Ocean by the Serra do Marão mountains.
The Baixo Corgo lies to the west of the area, known and loved for its frequent rain and cool average temperatures. Here’s where affordable ruby and tawny ports are made. Cima Corgo, with the town of Pinhão at its heart, is warmer in summer with less rain, creating better quality grapes used for vintage, reserve, and aged Tawny ports. Then there’s the easterly Douro Superior: warm, dry and flat therefore ideal for mechanised harvesting.
What to drink port with
Port is a traditional accompaniment to dessert, also eaten with cheese, nuts or chocolate. It’s also a popular aperitif and a favourite at Christmas. But like so much in life, there are no rules unless you’re a perfectionist or traditionalist.
Port is super-tasty, comforting and warming on its own in winter, wonderful with mulled wine ingredients like cloves and honey added. Port is fantastic with lots of ice in summer and perfect served long and cold with mixers. Drink it any way you like, create any flavour combo you wish. You never know, you might kick off a fresh new port trend!
Different types of Port
Port can either be matured in glass bottles or wood barrels. The first is called reductive ageing, with the liquid never exposed to the air. The resulting wines are lovely and smooth. Because barrels let in a bit of oxygen the wine inside ages in an oxidative way to create an end product that’s slightly thicker.
Both of these can be sub-divided into what’s called ‘normal’ port: your standard ruby, three-year-old tawny, and white, and ‘Categorias Especiais’, under which the rest fall.
Ruby port is probably what you’ll find in the shops in the UK. The way it’s stored makes it age reductively and the colour is a vivid red. Unless it’s a premium variant it doesn’t really improve with age. It is what it is. Reserve ruby port is posher, formally approved by the IVDP tasting panel.
Tawny port is made from red grapes aged in a barrel, slowly mellowing to a gorgeous golden brown with a unique nutty edge. It’s usually sweet or medium dry and makes an excellent dessert wine. Reserve tawny port is posher, aged for around 7 years. The most expensive reserve tawny ports are aged for as long as four decades.
Rose port is a new kid on the block, first made in 2008. It’s a ruby port fermented in the same way as rose wine to give it a beautiful rose colour.
White port is made from white grapes, a great base for cocktails, just as gorgeous served neat and chilled. Locals to Porto drink it long with tonic water and it comes in anything from unusually sweet to very dry. As you can see, you can get as creative as you like with port.
Porto port tours
Make your way to the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river where the port houses are. Most of them offer port tasting rooms, some on the flat land by the river itself and others further up the hill.
It’s wise to make an appointment or book a Porto tour of the city’s port houses rather than just turn up and hope for the best. You can pop in on your way past if you’re suddenly inspired, and the off-season is perfect for that, but in the holiday season you’ll need to pre-book.
You could go crazy and cram in a load of port wine tours in one day, but this is strong stuff and you’ll probably end up totally drunk. The experts say a maximum of 2-3 port house visits a day is about right!
Check out our inspiring Porto tours
Porto is about so much more than the port. Once you’ve sampled that we have a host more brilliant experiences for you, whether it’s a day trip on the river, an exploration of the nature reserve on the estuary, a city centre tour with a local guide, or a romantic sunset boat tour with dinner and drinks.
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