Wednesday, November 14, 2012

What Is?... Port Wine

Port is a style of fortified wine made famous from the city of Oporto in Spain and made popular through the British. During the fermentation of a normal wine, brandy is added, killing the yeasts and stopping fermentation before all the sugars are consumed. This creates a wine with a high alcohol content with sweeter than usual flavors. Wine like this can age for a very long time in barrels, useful when the British were sending wine from Spain back home via sailing ship.

There are wide ranging styles of Port, but most commonly they can be classified at Ruby, made from deeply red colored grapes, or Tawny, made from lighter colored wines. Both wines tend to be sweet, but can pick up more complexity as they age, and given the high alcohol content they can age for a long time.

No comments:

Post a Comment