Ports can be made in two styles: wood-aged or bottle-aged.
Wood-aged ports include white, ruby, tawny, late-bottled vintage (LBV), as well as old tawnies and colheita. These wines are aged in cask, sometimes for many decades; they are filtered before bottling and ready to drink when released.
White Port is made from a range of white grape varieties grown in the Douro Valley. It is made in the same way as a red Port, and consumed primarily as an aperitif or a mixer. White Port is popular in Europe but rare in the United States.
Ruby Ports are red, young, fruity wines, while a standard tawny is lighter in color and softer in flavor. Both are usually bottled when about three years old. The main difference between the two is that ruby Ports are made from darker, richer wines while tawnies are made from lighter ones.
Late-bottled vintage, by comparison, is a premium ruby made from a single vintage, aged in wood for four to six years to approximate the intensity of vintage Port. Some LBVs are filtered before bottling and do not benefit from further aging; better LBVs are unfiltered and will continue to mature in the bottle like a true vintage Port.
Old tawnies and colheitas are a step up in quality. Old tawnies, labeled as 10, 20, 30 or 40 years old, are a blend of various fine-quality Ports matured in wooden cask. The year denotes the average age of the blend.
Colheita is essentially a tawny Port produced from a single vintage and aged in wood for a minimum of seven years.
Bottle-aged Ports, on the other hand, are aged briefly in wooden casks and then bottled, unfiltered, for the remainder of their maturation. This includes single-quinta Ports, made from the unblended grapes of a single estate in a single vintage, and the king of Ports -- vintage Port. These Ports are produced from the wine of a single vintage and bottled after two or two and a half years in wood. They may be a blend of wine from various vineyards or produced from a single estate (a quinta). Vintage Ports are released only in the best years. | Posted on May 15, 2001
By Philippe Andre |
