The production of high quality Douro reds is a relatively young endeavor, given impetus when the law requiring Ports to be aged downriver in coastal Vila Nova de Gaia – an expense favoring the larger shippers – was lifted in 1986.  This broke down some of the financial barriers for smaller growers and investors to make their own wine in the Douro Valley, and it favored dry wines over Port.  As Christian Seeley of Quinta da Romaneira explained, the lead time to become a new Port brand is long because …

When I gave winemaker Rui Cunha my card, he laughed and said that I would find the wine muses at Ramos Pinto, the next stop on our trip.  Imagine my delight when Ramos Pinto descendent Joao Almeida told me about the ‘inspirational’ images founder Adriano Ramos Pinto used for marketing wines beginning in the 1890′s to seduce a new generation of buyers in export markets.
The House of Adriano Ramos Pinto was founded on exports to the growing Portuguese colony of Brazil.  So when Adriano devised his marketing strategy, he searched …

My motto is “Discover the world and savor the classics.”  The catchphrase encourages consumers to explore all the wines of the world but to never forget the classics.  One cannot truly appreciate wines without having benchmarks to compare them to.  One of the most classic of these benchmarks is Port, the sweet fortified wine of the Douro (“Golden”) Valley in Portugal.  The region has been making wine since Roman times.  Its wine history is interwoven with Portugal’s illustrious past as New World explorer and global trader.  The Douro Valley’s terrain …

 
Appreciation of great wines deepens with positive memories of visiting the place of origin and soaking up the history and culture, the landscapes and most of all, tasting the food and wines at the source.  In a great wine capital like the Napa Valley, with wineries and restaurants lining its straight, flat roads, visiting the region is an easy thing to do.  In the historic city of Porto and the Douro Valley, it hasn’t been quite as convenient to get the full experience; after all, the majority of quintas and …

If the greatest wines in the world are made to age using the most expensive production methods, have a long history of quality control and are so recognizable by style that they can only be a single wine from a singular place, then Port is such a wine.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine made since the 17th century from grapes grown in the Douro River Valley in Portugal.  They are aged, traditionally, downriver in the cooler port city of Vila Nova de Gaia across the river from Porto.  In the …

My trip to Porto and the Douro Valley in Portugal revealed a lesser-known fact:  that sweet fortified wines can pair with savory foods in new and exciting ways.  Just don’t think about Port as a really “sweet” wine, and don’t always think “red” although most Port wine is made with red grape varieties.
While Port wine is sweet, typically about 100 grams/liter, it can be lower than 40 g/l for a white Port or as low as 80 g/l for ruby and tawny Ports depending on the producer’s house style.  For …