Port anD the Douro 149they are not intended for keeping over the medium or long term. With most wines having
been fined and filtered prior to bottling, they should not need decanting. All ruby, tawny
and rosé and white Ports fall into this category, including tawnies with an indication of age,
colheita, reserve Port and the majority of LBV. So-called ‘wood Ports’ are generally bottled
with a stopper cork (as opposed to a driven cork which requires a corkscrew to extract).
Bottle-matured Ports: these wines may spend a short period ageing in bulk (usually in
large wood) but are bottled while relatively young and continue to develop in bottle over
the medium to long term. All vintage Ports, single-quinta vintage, crusted, and unfiltered
LBVs fall into this category. Compared to wood Ports, where the maturation takes place in a
controlled, oxidative environment, bottle-matured Ports age in reductive conditions largely
isolated from the air. Bottle maturation therefore slows down the ageing process. A crude
illustration of this can be seen just by comparing the colour of a vintage Port after twenty
years with that of a twenty-year-old colheita. Bottle-matured Ports are not generally subject
to any fining or filtration and therefore throw a sediment or ‘crust’ in bottle and should be
decanted. They are bottled in dark, often opaque, glass with driven corks and should be
stored lying down in cool conditions to keep the cork elastic and prevent the intake of air.
The Port and Douro Wine Institute (IVDP) have their own official categorisation which is
written into the statutes that govern Port. Anything other than standard ruby, tawny, rosé
and white Port, which together account for just over 80 per cent of the trade in volume
terms, falls into the so called ‘Special Categories’ or Categorias Especiais. This embraces all
vintage Port, LBV, reserve, Port with the year of vintage stated (i.e. single-quinta vintage
and colheita), and Port with the age indicated on the label (i.e. most aged tawnies). The
rules that accompany the Special Categories are much more exacting than those covering
standard Port. With the exception of Ports categorised as ‘reserva’ (see below), the shippers
are required to maintain a current account for each lote and the wines are regularly and
randomly monitored by the IVDP to ensure that they remain true to style. In 2011, the
Special Categories accounted for 20% of all Port.
‘Port tyP es’?
the title of this chapter – Port types – is inspired by an essay title set many years
ago by the institute of Masters of Wine in London. this is a notoriously challenging
examination with far more failures than there are passes. the candidate at the time
was a senior member of the UK wine trade with long-standing family links to Port and
oporto. he took the question at face value and wrote an erudite essay about the people
in the business. thankfully he passed!