To finish my series on port, today the last two facts I want to share. Interested in reading more? At the bottom of this article are the links to websites with more information.

9. There are approximately 30.000 grape growers in the Douro. 120 of those produce port, only 75 of them bottle their own. Of those 75, 60 are producers that went into the bottling ánd exporting businesses after 1986, the year that Portugal joined the EU. The remaining 15 are the old shippers companies, partly of English origin, that in the 21st century have formed big to very big conglomerates. Those 15 are responsible for 90% of all export!

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Field blend: several varieties in one field, at Quevedo’s Quinta Senhora do Rosario

Today, again two interesting facts to learn about port. The first three issues of these series were published yesterday, the day before that and last Sunday.

7. The grape varieties that are used for port are multiple, some say more than 80! The five most important are touriga nacional, tinta barroca, touriga franca, tinto roriz and tinta cão (all for red ports).  In former days, all the grapes were planted in the same field, and producers wouldn’t even know what was what. Nowadays, that holds true for a lot of older plots, but single-varietal vineyards are more common for younger fields. Blends between grape varieties can therefore occur in several ways:  in the vineyard, after harvesting, during fermentation and after fermentation. The only thing that is sure about this aspect of blending, I learned: port is ALWAYS a blend, never a single varietal wine! There are exceptions, but they remain just that.

Ruby’s

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Everyone knows port, right? Or at least, knows about port. Port comes from Portugal, from the city of (O)porto. As simple as that. But of course that is not the whole story. There is so much more to learn about this great and historic wine. Especially after a visit to the city the wine takes its name from and the area where it is produced, you come back with loads of new knowledge. The next five days, each day I will publish two facts I think are worth sharing.

1. Port has been around for some time now. Somewhere at the end of the 17th century, it was discovered that adding brandy to strong red wines resulted in a powerful, sweet wine. People loved it, in England and the North of Europe, and adding aguardente during fermentation is the main defining characteristic of this type of wine since the late 18th and especially the 19th century. Port nowadays has an alcohol percentage of around 19%.

2. But port is not made in Porto! The grapes grow further upstream along the river Douro, which empties in the sea just a bit further downstream of the city of Porto. Along the banks of the Douro there are vineyards almost all the way to the Spanish border.  So port takes its name from the sea  port is was exported from, called Porto (a lot of port there… ). Besides port, the Douro also produces table wines.

Tomorrow, more facts on port!