It’s said that fruit-driven Vintage Ports reflect the vintage conditions and aged Tawnys reflect the Port House style which is a complex blend of wines from different vintages.  The House style can be drier than sweeter, or fruity vs. complex.  It is up to the winemaker to determine how to achieve the House style using a mix of grapes and vineyard locations, a range of vat sizes, a vast inventory of existing blends and vintage wines, and a blending philosophy.
Graham’s House style, for example, is rich and sweet, while Warre’s …

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 …

 
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 …

Visiting Porto, Portugal, is a reminder of Portugal’s historic importance as a world trading centre for over two thousand years and its dominance in the 16th century.  The historic district is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  For wine lovers, Porto is the home of the one and only Port wine, with Vila Nova de Gaia across the Douro River being the district where most of the major Port houses cellar and age their wines.  I have stayed at the Grande Hotel in the shopping district (about a mile north from the bridge), but if you are visiting …