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 …

 
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 …

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 …

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 …

Authentic Madeira from Portugal is one of the great fortified sweet wines in the world.  Madeira’s unique character has its origins as a wine made to travel, given the island’s location in the path of trans-Atlantic trade between the Americas, Europe and the Indies beginning in the 15th century.  It was the long sea voyage that necessitated the fortification of the still wines with brandy or rum to keep the wines in good condition.  During the 17th century when the Indies was Madeira’s major market, Portuguese producers discovered the exquisite evolution of wines stored in the hot holds of …

One of the producers that impressed me at a recent Madeira tasting in San Francisco was Vinhos Barbeito.  Achieving quality in fortified sweet wines is not so easy.  If one doesn’t have fine balance of the alcohol, acidity and sweetness, the wine will taste “hot”, cloying or flabby.  The Barbeito wines were none of these.  I spoke with family member and winemaker Ricardo Freitas on their philosophy on quality and how they achieve it.  By European standards, Barbeito is relatively young, established only in 1946 by Ricardo’s grandfather Mario Barbeito de Vasconcelos who began by making …

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 …