12/15: Porto's Port & Port Wines 101!

Close to three months ago now I returned from being away on vacation with a friend in New Zealand and Australia for 3.5 weeks. In case you also want to follow that really fun trip Down Under, here's a link to the newest blog:
www.bergersadventures7.blogspot.com

Earlier in the day Steven and I had an interesting time touring the Stock Exchange Palace and two fascinating churches here in Porto. Even though the weather had taken a turn for the worse, we nonetheless decided to take our chances and walk along the riverfront with the eventual goal of stopping at a port wine lodge, something that the city is so famous for.

In the distance was the Dom Luis I Bridge over the 500-foot wide Douro River which was built by a protege of Gustave Eiffel who himself built another bridge a bit upstream. The bridge, inaugurated in October of 1886, was built of two metal trays supported by a great iron arch and five piers.

Before tourism helped make Porto and the rest of Portugal one of Europe's must-see destinations, the Ribeira or riverfront was a working port. The city wall fortified Porto from the river and, until an embankment was built in the 20th century, the water came right up the arches which also served as loading zones for merchants. Nowadays, I read, the old arcades are jammed in better weather with hole-in-the-wall restaurants and souvenir shops. 

The view, such as it was, was to the town of Vila Nova de Gaia or just Gaia across the river where most of the world's port wine comes to mature. I knew not a thing about port wines before coming to Porto except for always reading books where normally British men would retire after dinner to the library to indulge in a glass of port! Port wine grapes are grown and a young port is produced about 60 miles upstream in the Douro Valley. Then, after sitting for the winter in silos for the winter, the wine is shipped downstream to Gaia to age for years in lodges on the cool, north-facing riverbank. 

These distinctive boats, called rabelos, were once the only way to transport wine from the Douro Valley vineyards to the cellars of Porto. The boats had flat bottoms, a big square sail and a very large rudder to help them navigate the rough and twisty river. 

Mid December, we knew after being in Porto for just a few days, was not the most opportune time to visit the lovely city and soak up its many charms! If you've been lucky enough to go to Paris, this wrought-iron bridge might remind you of the Eiffel Tower as it did us.

Immediately across the river was Sandeman, the most high-profile port company and considered the Budweiser of port. They were the first port producer to create a logo and had the "most corporate, mainstream, accessible experience" for people new to discovering the world of port wines. If our apartment owners had not already  given us complementary passes to Churchill's, a port wine lodge located a good walk away, we may have stopped here especially since the weather didn't look like it might improve for a good while. 

Even if there weren't many people out, Steven would have been easy to spot in his bright red umbrella!

Did you know, unlike me, that port was actually a British phenomenon? Because Britain wasn't suitable for growing grapes, wine was traditionally imported from France until the 17th and 18th century wars when Britain boycotted French wines. Portuguese wines generally didn't survive the longer sea journey to Britain. I read the port-making process may have come about accidentally when two Portuguese brothers fortified wine with grape brandy to maintain its quality during the long trip. When the wine picked up the flavor of the oak barrels it was stored in, the British really liked it! Because the British perfected port production in the succeeding generations, many ports have British-sounding names like Taylor, Croft, Graham and, of course, Churchill's.

In 1703, the Methuen Treaty reduced taxation on Portuguese wines which made port even more popular. In 1756, Portugal's Marques de Pombal demarcated the Douro region which meant from that point on that true 'port wine' could only come from this region following specific rules of production just as 'Champagne' technically refers to a specific region in France. 

If the weather were better and not so late in the day, it would have been interesting to spend some time in Gaia.

From the riverfront we walked uphill along deserted streets past centuries' old stone buildings toward Churchill's for our reserved appointment.

How wonderful to warm up and dry up on entering the lodge's  tasting room. Because of the inclement weather, there were only a few others sampling the ports. 

Our personal guide, Joao, told us that Churchill's was started in 1981 by John Graham who left his family's famous Graham port wine lodge to start his own firm. Five hundred million bottles of wine are produced yearly in the Douro Valley with half being port and the rest table wines. 

The area where Churchill's grapes are grown has direct sunlight in the morning which means less acidity which in turn prevents excessive humidity from less wind. It's a natural process with little chance of irrigation and only if prior permission is received from the Port Wine Institute that strictly regulates every facet  of port production. The five week harvest normally takes place beginning in late September. 

Joao mentioned there's little intervention in wine production so harvest is done by hand. That way, there is more juice and the seeds aren't destroyed. When I found out the exclusively local Douro Valley workers stomp on the grapes for six hours a day for five weeks, it sure didn't look as fun as it appeared initially!

Churchill's stops fermentation of their port wine at 75 percent by adding a flavorless fire water like a brandy or white spirit to achieve the perfect taste. After fermentation takes place, filtration occurs in stainless steel vats which have a capacity of 50,000 liters. 

As we walked a short distance to a massive building where the port was ageing in French oak barrels, Joao said that 80 percent of the land in Portugal is used to produce wine!

For most port drinkers, "port" means a tawny port. But I learned that since there were more than forty varieties of grapes used in its production, there's a wide spectrum of port. Leathery-colored tawny port is aged in smaller barrels which maximizes its exposure to wood, and gives it a nuttier flavor. Tawny port remains in the wood from anywhere from ten to forty years. To enhance the complexity of its flavor, all tawny ports are actually a blend of several vintages so that a 30-year old tawny has components that are just ten or twenty years old. Inexpensive Ruby port, by contrast, only ages in the oak vats for three years before being bottled. 

Ruby colored vintage port is the most expensive and comes from a single harvest only. Only wine from the very best vintages is selected, typically two or three a decade. It then must be tested by the authorities; if approved, it's then bottled and aged for another 10-30 years. If not, the wine stays in the casks longer to become LBV or Late Bottle Vintage port. That was invented after WW II when British wine lovers couldn't afford vintage port. LBV is a blend of wines from a single year which age together in huge wooden vats for four to six years. The size of the vats means less exposure to wood which makes it age more quickly. According to the information on the barrel, this LBV was started in 2015 and needs one more year before it will be bottled. The chalk marks on the bottom indicated it was last tasted about a month before we were there, on November 26th, 2018.

All the wine here, Joao stated, are in contact with the old oak barrels used to age port. They are then sold to Scotland so the barrels can be used to age whiskey which was news to me. When Steven and I  visit a distillery in Scotland in late September, it'll be fun to remember that fact!

Each barrel holds an average of 600 liters of which about two percent evaporates. That's called the angels' share!

The marking on the cask indicated the wine was 30 years old and had been last tasted in May of 2018. When this port is released for sale, it will sell for 120 euros a bottle - not cheap stuff!

We also saw white ports which are "young and robust" and aged in barrels for ten years. Joao indicated they were best served chilled with codfish - beloved by all Portuguese - sushi and appetizers.

We came at last to the vintage bottled wines. Joao said it's critical for those bottles to lie down to come into contact with the cork so the wine doesn't become vinegary. To drink a vintage port, the bottle must stand up for 90 minutes because of the sediment and then be filtered or decanted. The bottle is then best drunk within six days. The 2011 vintage was considered one of the best years because of the normal winter and best overall climate with only rain twice at the end of August. Some people bought it then as an investment, paying 60-95 euros a bottle, knowing it would increase in value later. 

Joao was justifiably proud of the fact that Churchill's won its first Gold Medal in 1985, just four years after it opened!

Eighty percent of port wines (or Churchill's, I wasn't sure) are exported, most to the UK and English-speaking countries like South Africa and Canada. No mention of the US was made and I neglected to ask. Churchill's (and other port producers, possibly) are trying to get into Northern Europe like Denmark and Switzerland because they're non-wine producers. It's tough to get into the other European countries, according to Joao, because the people aren't used to drinking port wines. The only distributor in the US is Frederick Wildman & Sons in NY.

The impressive Wall of Fame indicated the many awards Churchill's has won over the years.

After the informative tour, we were led to the fun part of the experience with a return visit to the tasting room! There we were treated to a selection of cheese and crackers and our own server who then plied us with a variety of ports and all for free - we hadn't ever been treated like that when visiting wineries in Napa or elsewhere! The first was 'white' port but it wasn't that white as you can see. It was hard not to smile after the fun tour and coming in out of the chilly wet weather.

The next was a ruby port which had only aged for a maximum of six years in wood barrels. As no year was listed on the bottle, we knew it was a blend of different types of grapes and may have been a blend, too, of different years. 

The ruby port is like a traditional post-dinner port wine that pairs nicely with cheese, chocolate or fruit, according to our server. I much preferred the ruby to the white port as I found the former a little rough. My apologies, Will, for my inexact wine verbiage! We were served a few more but I can't remember those ones at all. What an enjoyable experience that was - I would definitely order a glass of port in the future, something I'd never think of doing prior to being exposed to port wines at Churchill's.

How much prettier once the rain abated Porto looked  from the Gaia side of the Douro! The line of rabelos boats, used until the 1970s for transporting port wine to Porto, were now mostly used for tourists' cruises up and down the river. It took three days to complete the 50-100 mile journey and a crew of four to load just eight barrels onto the the 20-foot boats! 

For the downstream trip, the captain stood on a platform to look out for rocks and shallows ahead, using the long rudder to guide the flat-bottomed boat through whitewater and hairpin turns. It was dangerous work and the river was once lined with shrines where superstitious sailors prayed. 

On arrival in Gaia, the cargo was unloaded and the boat headed back. For the slow trip upstream, the tall square sail helped them ride the prevailing westerly winds. Otherwise, they were pulled by ropes up the worst stretches by men or by oxen on paths that once lined the riverbank. 

It was great advertising as well as very striking seeing all the signs promoting the port wine lodges along the riverfront. I took special note of Graham's as it was one of the original companies as well where Churchill's owner had his start.

Next post: Sadly, our last day in Porto and Portugal but fun nonetheless exploring more of the enticing city.

Posted on June 18th, 2019, also on our last day at Florida's Grayton Beach State Park but we hope to return in late August of 2020, God willing.