A Guide to Port Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage that is made from the fermentation of unmodified grape juice. Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species known as Vitis vinifera, although it can also be made from various other species or from hybrids, which are created by the genetic crossing of two different species.
There are many different types of wine, with the most major classifications being white and red, white being made from fermented white grapes and red wine obviously then being made from fermented red grapes.
Port Wine
There are various different types of wine to choose from, one of the most popular of all being port wine. Port wine is a sweet Portuguese style wine that comes from the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. This wine is actually often served as a dessert wine, and there are several imitations of port wine that have been reproduced around the world.
Port is produced from the grapes grown and processed in the Douro region, and it is then fortified with the addition of distilled grape spirits, in order to boost the alcohol content before the wine making process is fully complete.
The Properties
Port wine tends to be, for the most part, much richer, sweeter and heavier than other wines, and as well it possesses a much higher alcohol content than most others. There are several different styles of this wine that are available, the two most major categories being reductive aging and oxidative aging.
The wines that have been matured and aged in sealed tanks or bottles with no exposure at all to air have experienced what is known as reductive aging, while the wines that have matured in barrels and which have had a small amount of exposure to oxygen have experienced oxidative aging.
Vintage Port
Although not as popular a selection of some of the other port varieties, vintage port wine is truly the flagship wine of all Portugal. It is made entirely from the grapes of a declared vintage year, and the actual decision to declare a vintage is made by each individual port house.
It tends to be more expensive than other port wines, however the flavor is also much more concrete and pungent, and so it is really worth the extra bit of money, at least once so that you can try it out for yourself.
Although it is usually paired with desserts, you can really try it out with a variety of other foods, in order to determine your own personal preferences, especially if the food is sweet.
