To call itself port, wine has to be made from grapes grown in the Douro valley of Portugal. Dozens of grape varieties can be used for making port, but the most notable varieties include Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, and Touriga Francesa. Almost every port is a blend of these grapes.

Ruby port
Crusted port
Late-Bottled Vintage (LBV)
Tawny port
Colheita
White port
Vintage port
Single-Quinta port

The history of Port
Port, for many people, is synonymous with nostalgia. it owes much of its popularity to eighteenth century British wine-traders, who stumbled upon a local Portuguese technique of adding brandy to partially-fermented wine. This process stabilised and fortified the wine, and also added sweetness.

Wealthy and famed British-connected port houses thrived in the city of Oporto, where wine was stored in huge warehouses before shipping. In the nineteenth century, famous names such as Dow, Taylor, Warre, Croft, Graham, and Cockburn capitalised on a lucrative trade in port, and laid the foundation for the worldwide popularity of this drink.

Making the port
Grapes destined for port are grown on estates or quintas on the steep, terrace-lined hillsides of the Douro valley. The intense heat on these hillsides aids the grapes in attaining generous alcohol levels, as well as encouraging lush ripeness and sweetness.

Treading the port
At some quintas, you'll find a primitive, but effective wine process, still in production today. The treading of grapes is still undertaken by bare-foot workers who practice their craft in open tanks called lagares.

This process extracts maximum colour and tannin from the grape skins without crushing the seeds, whose bitter flavours could spoil the wine. Today, the method is used only for the best grapes, and machines have been developed to produce the same effect at a fraction of the cost.

Getting the sweetest taste
Despite its high alcohol content of around 20 per cent, grapes aren't fermented to full dryness, and port retains a fair amount of sweetness.

This sweetness accounts for port's popularity as an accompaniment to Stilton cheese.

But sweetness is far from being the whole story - there are many variations between one port and another.
Find out more about...

Ruby port
Crusted port
Late-Bottled Vintage (LBV)
Tawny port
Colheita
White port
Vintage port
Single-Quinta port