Port anD the Douro 145becoming ever more congested and tourist-orientated a number of other shippers have
followed, constructing well-insulated armazéns in the Douro. Gran Cruz, which vies with
Symington Family Estates as the largest Port shipper and is by far the largest Port brand,
plan to follow Noval by moving their lodges and bottling to the Douro in the near future.
Sandeman, Symington Family Estates (Cockburn, Dow, Graham and Warre) and the
Fladgate Partnership (Croft, Fonseca and Taylor) all maintain substantial stocks of Port
in the Douro, especially stocks of aged tawny which develop well in humidity-controlled
conditions without a hint of fabled ‘Douro-bake’.
raCking
The process of racking (or transfega as it is known in Portuguese) is an important but
extremely labour-intensive part of the annual cycle of cellar work. It involves separating
the clear wine from the sediment or lees that have settled at the bottom of the cask or vat.
Left in the wine, the lees will generate off-flavours and, apart from aiding the process of
clarification, racking also provides aeration and helps to develop the flavour of the wine.
Racking regimens vary according to the shipper and the type of wine, but all Ports are
typically racked three times in the first year, twice in the second and annually thereafter.
Older wines like aged tawnies continue to precipitate solid matter as the anthocyanins
(tannin and colouring matter) are deposited in the bottom of the cask. In this case pipes
or casks (normally stacked four high) are decanted progressively, starting from the top
row. The lees are left in the bottom of each pipe, which is then removed from the stack,
cleaned and replaced. The stack is effectively entirely rebuilt, row by row. With labour-
saving in mind, some shippers have built new lodges with small cranes (many of these in
the Douro) to shift and empty the pipes. The combination of ageing vessel, the amount
of air in the head space and the frequency of racking provides the winemaker with an
opportunity to influence the rate of maturation and has an important bearing on the style
and character of the wine.
ClariFiCation anD Filtration
Racking alone is sufficient to eliminate heavier insoluble particles from a young Port but it
does not remove inherently unstable material found in solution that could precipitate after
the wine has been bottled. Most wines are therefore clarified further using fining agents
such as gelatin, bentonite, egg white and casein. Young Ports are no exception and it is
the winemaker’s task to choose a fining agent appropriate to the type of wine. Gelatin and
bentonite are normally used in tandem, with larger amounts added to round out the flavour
and strip colour from a young wine (for example, a standard tawny which is supposed
to be paler than a ruby). One or two shippers use centrifugation to hasten deposition.
Some smaller producers continue to use gum arabic which prevents deposition and tends
to produce wines with an opaque appearance and a dull colour. Casein-based products