Port Wine
The Douro River, famed for its port wines, originates in Spain before wending its way west through Portugal. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the adjacent cities of Porto, and Vila Nova de Gaia, just to south across the river. On much of the Douro's banks, narrow terraces, hand-built of the local flat-faced shist stone, step up the steep hillsides. There the grapes to make both port and still wines are grown. A visit to the region this past winter was extremely enlightening; learning about how the ports are made and the important role that the wooden barrels play.
For the past several thousand years, the vintners in Portugal's upper Douro region have been shipping pipes, large, heavy barrels of wine down that river. By the 17th century, those shipments included the young port, a wine fortified with brandy. The pipes were transported in barcos rabelos, shallow-draft oar-and-sail-powered boats. Although port takes its name from the city of Porto, the actual end of the barcos' Douro River journey was to deliver the barrels to the warehouses in Vila Nova de Gaia. There, stored within cellars, or port lodges cooled by the maritime climate, the wines and ports were aged before shipping to clients around the world. The return trip carried new barrels, made in the lodges, upriver to the quintas.
For the boatmen on the barcos rabelos, the transit down the river had its exciting moments; negotiating several sets of treacherous rapids. They were able to do so manoeuvred only by oars and a huge stern sweep requiring four men to direct it.
But let's look back to before the barrels of wine and port make their challenging trip down the river. It all starts with the grapes. Their terraces, besides creating level spots to cultivate the vines on the steep hillsides, also help to contain what little water falls in that rain-shadow area of east Portugal. And by their very nature, the terraces, usually with just one or two rows of vines, necessitate that the grapes be hand-picked.
The terraces see a flurry of activity at harvest time, when teams of pickers work along those benches to cut the grapes that are loaded into wicker baskets. When the baskets are full, the labourers, employing trump lines on their foreheads to help ease the heavy loads, carry the baskets full of grapes to the quintas. There, within these age-old buildings, the grapes are dumped into large, shallow troughs, termed lagars. As the fermentation starts, teams of people, barefoot with pant legs rolled up, get into the lagars to stomp on the skins and tread through the liquid for several hours each day to release the colour. This traditional activity, occasionally done to music, is still done in many quintas. And it occasionally includes tourists, providing them a chance to experience the get-your-hands-and-feet-dirty aspects of winemaking.
After a few days, with the fermentation not yet complete, the juice is drained off. As this is done, high-proof alcohol, derived from distilling wine must from previous vintages, is slowly added to the liquid. As the first step to making the port, it brings the port up to about 17.5% ABV (alcohol by volume). These young ports are then placed into new and used oak barrels and tanks for maturation. Adding the alcohol stops the fermentation to retain the sugar in the wines. The cask ageing provides the port with their nutty flavour. As opposed to ageing in the tanks, the slow oxidation that occurs in the barrels softens the wines.
The pipes that were originally used to ferry the wines down river, are larger than the standard wine barrels, typically in the 500-plus litre range. Most are made from oak, but some are also made of chestnut, a wood benign in flavour but suitable for ageing. As noted above, historically these barrels were sent down the Douro for ageing in the Vila Nova de Gaia port lodges, an amazing journey. Nowadays, due largely to the installation of five hydroelectric dams on the river, temperature control within the quinta cellars and the shipping of the wine in bottles instead of barrels, the wines remain in the Alto Douro quintas. There, they are aged, bottled, and then shipped by truck to customers. While many quintas are still utilizing pipes, you will see many other sizes in their cellars.
Of the three major types of ports, the barrels are most critical for the tawny ports. Aged in these casks for a minimum of three years but often up to forty years, their colour fades and their finish smooths. When the vintners and winemakers feel that a certain year's grapes are higher in quality they will make a vintage port, ageing in the quinta's cooperage for only several years before bottling. The port then undergoes further ageing in those bottles. Finally, the ruby ports see ageing in both tanks and barrels.
With the barrels essential for all three types of ports and an increasing number of still wines now being produced by the Alto Douro vineyards, there continue to be active cooperages located in the Vila Nova de Gaia port lodges. Other independent cooperage companies, spread along the Douro Valley, are also making barrels. The barrels are now fabricated from Portuguese, European and American oak. One company makes a variety of casks, from 225 litres, through 300, 500 to 650-litre sizes, an indication that the Douro port and winemakers are evolving to meet changing customer tastes and differentiate their products.
