Types of Port Wine: Every Style You Can Taste in Gaia

A Fortified Wine From the Douro

By the IVDP's own definition, Port is a fortified wine as defined in EU legislation, produced in the Demarcated Region of the Douro. The finished wine usually sits between 19 and 22% vol. That is stronger than normal table wine. A bottle of Light Dry White Port is the exception, with a minimum alcohol of 16.5%.

The Douro Demarcated Region covers about 250,000 hectares, of which vines cover about 18%. The region was demarcated on 10 September 1756 under the Marquis of Pombal, one of the earliest formal wine demarcations anywhere. It splits into three sub-regions: Baixo Corgo with 13,204 ha under vine, Cima Corgo with 20,427 ha, and Douro Superior with 10,177 ha. About 20,000 farmers work it, with an average holding of just 2 hectares.

How Fortification Works

Port gets its strength and its sweetness from the same step. Fermentation is interrupted by adding neutral grape spirit, which Taylor's gives as brandy at 77% alcohol. Fortification happens when roughly half the natural grape sugar has turned to alcohol. The most frequent proportion is one part spirit to four parts of must-wine, and the resulting wine keeps its residual sweetness at 19-22% vol.

The winemaker sets the sweetness by choosing when to interrupt fermentation. The IVDP sweetness scale runs from extra dry under 40 g/l of sugar, through dry at 40-65 g/l and semi-dry at 65-90 g/l, to sweet at 90-130 g/l and very sweet over 130 g/l. All grape spirit used for port must be approved by the IVDP.

The Grapes and the Regulator

About 30 grape varieties are used to make port, though most modern vineyards plant five or six top reds. Taylor's lists Touriga Franca, the most widely planted variety in the Douro, plus Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela and Tinto Cão. Touriga Nacional has small thick-skinned berries and low yields and gives dark, concentrated, tannic wines.

The IVDP, the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, classifies and certifies the wine. In spring after each harvest a first selection and blending is made and every lot is classified by its potential. The regulator even grades the styles: Vintage is graded 9 as exceptional, LBV, Crusted, Colheita and age-indicated tawnies are graded 8, and the Reserve styles are graded 7.

Why the Wine Ages in Gaia

After the harvest the wine stays at the Douro winery until spring, then moves downriver. The IVDP says wines age either in the Douro or downriver in the Vila Nova de Gaia bonded lodges, which is exactly the row of cellars you can visit today. Rabelo boats, flat-bottomed wooden cargo boats, carried the barrels down the Douro to Gaia, and the port companies still keep rabelos on the river, with a race held on 24 June for São João.

Cask ageing loses wine to evaporation. Taylor's puts the angel's share at as much as 2% in the first years, which concentrates sugars, acids and aromas. That slow concentration in wood is what separates the tawny styles from the ruby styles. For how long each bottle keeps after opening and at what temperature to serve each type, see how to drink port wine.

One Table for Every Style

Ruby styles age mostly in large vats or bottles and keep their deep fruit colour. Tawny styles age long in smaller oak and turn gold-brown. White port is made from white grapes and rosé from lightly macerated red grapes.

Colour runs from deep red to light gold across the whole range, with white ports in pale yellow, straw and golden white. Note that rosé, although made from red grapes, is a family of its own in the IVDP scheme while it sits under the ruby-style categories for ageing.

Ruby

Ruby is the entry style of the family. Taylor's has the wine aged in vat for two or three years, and Wines of Portugal puts Ruby at up to 3 years in wooden barrels. The short, large-vessel ageing keeps the deep ruby colour and the fresh red fruit. It is undemanding: no decanting, and it keeps 8-10 days open by the IVDP guide.

The Poças tour pours three ports, White, Late Bottled Vintage and Reserve Tawny, so it is not the stop for a plain Ruby. The listings for the Burmester Cellar Tour and the Cálem Cellar Tour with Fado do not name the styles poured, so check with the cellar if a plain Ruby matters to you.

Reserve Ruby

Reserve Ruby is the next step up. The IVDP describes it as full-bodied, rich and deep ruby, and frequently a selection of the best port made each year. Taylor's notes that Reserve Ports age slightly longer than the two or three years of a plain Ruby. The IVDP grades Reserve Ruby at 7, very good, on its sensory scale.

If you want to compare Reserve against the tawny side, the Poças flight of three ports includes a Reserve Tawny for $26.31.

Crusted

Crusted is the odd one out. The IVDP defines it as a blend of wines of intense colour and full body, kept in bottle at least three years before sale, and it throws a deposit in bottle called the crust. Taylor's adds that Crusted is not from a single vintage and is not filtered before bottling. Wines of Portugal has it spending 3-4 years in wood before bottling, so it combines wood ageing with long bottle ageing.

It is graded 8, high, the same tier as LBV and Colheita. None of the tour listings names a Crusted, so ask the cellar if you want to taste one.

LBV, Late Bottled Vintage

LBV is a single-year ruby port bottled after four to six years in wood, against about two years for a Vintage. The IVDP says most LBVs are ready to drink on purchase, while some keep ageing in bottle. Wines of Portugal fixes the bottling window between 31 July of year four and 31 December of year six, with bottle-matured LBV spending at least three years in bottle. The IVDP grades LBV at 8, high.

The style was first launched in 1970 as an affordable, ready-to-drink alternative to Vintage, and it is now one in five port purchases in the UK. Opened, the IVDP gives it 4-5 days, while Taylor's says it lasts several weeks by the glass. Unfiltered bottlings, like the Fonseca and Ramos Pinto 2013 at 19.3% vol and 95 g/l residual sugar, benefit from decanting. Because LBV has its own rules, history and serving notes, the full detail is on the LBV port page.

Vintage and Single Quinta Vintage

Vintage is the top of the ruby family and of port generally. The IVDP says it comes from a single year's harvest, is bottled two to three years after the vintage, and develops over 10 to 50 years in bottle. Young it shows intense ruby colour with red fruits and wild berries, and with maturity it takes garnet tones. Houses declare Vintage only in outstanding years: Taylor's lists 2024, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2011 among its declared years, and historically only about three Vintage years are declared per decade. The IVDP grades Vintage at 9, exceptional.

A related style is Single Quinta Vintage, a single harvest from a single quinta. Opened Vintage is fragile: the IVDP gives it 1-2 days and Sandeman 2-3 days, so open it for a dinner, not a month of glasses. Serve at 16-18 C and decant. To taste vintage ports and tawnies side by side in Gaia, the Graham's Vintage Room Tasting pours vintage ports and tawnies in a library-style room, 2 hours for $78 with the group limited to 10 guests.

Tawny and Tawny Reserve

Reserve Tawny is the step above basic tawny, and the IVDP lists it as aged in oak. On the IVDP sensory scale, Reserve Ruby, Reserve Tawny and Reserve White are graded 7 (very good), one step below the grade 8 of Colheita and age-indicated tawnies. An opened Reserve Tawny keeps three to four weeks per the IVDP.

For serving temperatures, see how to drink port wine.

Aged Tawny: 10, 20, 30 and 40 Years

Age-indicated tawny comes in 10, 20, 30 and 40 year old versions. The number is not one wine's age. Sandeman explains these tawnies blend several harvests and the stated age is the approximate average of the blend. A Cálem 10 Year Old is aged an average of 10 years in oak, and the same wording applies up the range. Sandeman's 30 Year Old is a strict selection of wines between 25 and 40 years of age at 20% alcohol. Graham's 40 Year Old is aged an average of 40 years in seasoned oak, and Quinta do Noval ages its 40 Year Old in 640-litre casks called cascos. Taylor's sells all four ages in one box, its Century Collection, with 100 years of combined ageing. These wines are graded 8 (high) on the IVDP scale, and the IVDP gives an opened bottle one to four months. Taylor's suggests serving a 40 Year Old slightly chilled at 12-16 C with no decanting.

See Graham's Vintage Room tasting, where vintage ports and tawnies are poured, priced at $78 for a 2 hour visit.

Colheita

A Colheita is the tawny answer to a single year. The IVDP defines it as single-vintage tawny aged in cask for a minimum of seven years. Dow's ages its Colheitas like blended tawnies in seasoned oak casks, but from one single harvest.

Quinta do Noval's Colheita 2012 spent about 15 years in wood before bottling. Colheita is graded 8 (high) on the IVDP scale, alongside LBV and age-indicated tawny. Dow's suggests tasting its 1996 Colheita slightly chilled and notes it keeps for some weeks after opening.

Cálem states its own Colheitas are aged a minimum of 10 years, a house policy above the legal floor of seven. More on this style in the tawny port guide.

White Port, from Extra Dry to Lágrima

The IVDP sells white Port in six styles: extra dry, dry, semi-sweet, sweet, very sweet and Lágrima. Its sweetness scale runs by sugar in grams per litre: extra dry under 40, dry 40-65, semi-dry 65-90, sweet 90-130 and very sweet over 130. The winemaker sets the sweetness by choosing when to interrupt fermentation, and extra dry, dry and semi-sweet whites are fermented longer to cut residual sugar.

Younger whites are drunk as aperitifs and longer-aged ones after meals. White Port is served at 6-10 C and a modern-style white keeps 8-10 days opened, while a traditional white keeps 15-20 days. Light Dry White Port has a minimum alcohol of 16.5%, below the usual 19-22% range.

Reserve and Aged White Port

White Port also has serious aged categories. The IVDP lists White Reserve, White with age indication in 10, 20, 30 and 40 years, and White Colheita among its special categories. White Reserve is aged in wood for about seven years, and Wines of Portugal states a minimum of seven years.

Aged white Ports develop golden hues similar to old tawnies. An opened white with age indication keeps one to four months, the longest of any white style. Taylor's notes ordinary white Port is usually aged two or three years in large vats, and that its Chip Dry, first launched in 1934, was the first dry white Port.

Rosé Port

Rosé Port sits inside the ruby family on the IVDP grouping: it is made from lightly macerated red grapes, giving a pink wine with fresh red fruit. It is drunk young, chilled or with ice, and the IVDP gives a serving temperature of 4 C. Croft Pink, from the Croft house, is described as the first rosé Port, a light fresh fruity style served very chilled or in cocktails. Wikipedia credits the introduction of rosé Port to Poças and Croft.

No rosé is named in the Poças listing. The Poças guided visit and tasting at $26.31 includes three ports, White, Late Bottled Vintage and Reserve Tawny, in a 1.5 hour visit.

The Grapes and the Harvest

About 30 grape varieties can be used to make Port, though most modern vineyards plant five or six top reds. Taylor's lists Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela and Tinto Cão. Touriga Franca is the most widely planted variety in the Douro Valley.

Touriga Nacional has small thick-skinned berries and low yields and gives dark, concentrated, tannic wines. Tinta Barroca gives soft, round, fragrant wines. Tinto Cão, one of the oldest Douro varieties, is the least planted because of very low yields.

Harvest begins each year between the end of August and mid-October. Red Ports are made from riper grapes with high sugar, tannin and colour, while white grapes are picked earlier to keep aroma and acidity.

Fortification

Fermentation turns grape sugar into alcohol. When roughly half the natural sugar has turned to alcohol, grape brandy at 77% alcohol is added, which stops fermentation and keeps the wine's natural sweetness. Taylor's gives a working ratio of about 115 litres of brandy to 435 litres of fermenting wine, though this can vary.

The IVDP's most frequent proportion is one part spirit to four parts must-wine. All grape spirit used for Port must be approved by the IVDP. After fortification the wine keeps residual sweetness and lands at 19-22% alcohol by volume.

Ageing, the Rabelos and Gaia

In spring after the harvest a first selection and blending is made and each wine is classified by its potential. Wines then age either in the Douro or downriver in the Vila Nova de Gaia bonded lodges, which is where nearly every cellar tour on this site takes place. In the first years of cask ageing evaporation, the angel's share, can reach 2%, concentrating sugars, acids and aromas.

Rabelo boats, flat-bottomed wooden cargo boats, carried the barrels down the Douro to Gaia, and port companies still keep rabelos on the river, with a rabelo race held on 24 June for São João.

The 1756 Demarcation

The Douro Demarcated Region was created on 10 September 1756 under the Marquis of Pombal, with the Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro. The vineyards were marked with 335 stone pillars, the marcos pombalinos, and Taylor's dates the first comprehensive classification of Port vineyards to 1757. Taylor's calls it the first vineyard demarcation in the world, while Wikipedia ranks it third after Chianti in 1716 and Tokaj in 1730.

The region covers about 250,000 hectares with vines on about 18% of the land, farmed by about 20,000 growers with an average holding of 2 hectares.

Tours by Style Poured

Single-cellar visits pour two or three ports, and only some listings name the styles. Walking tours across several cellars go wider, and the Graham's Vintage Room tasting is the one that puts vintage ports and tawnies front and centre. Prices are the tour entry prices in US dollars exactly as listed, and none of these tours includes hotel pickup.

For the full comparison of every visit, see the Porto wine cellar tours homepage.