Port Wine

Port is a naturally sweet, fortified red wine which achieves its sweetness by adding brandy to the fermenting grape juice thus stopping fermentation before all of the grape sugar has been converted to alcohol. Port wines are blessed with a full, fruity flavor, and possess a powerful perfumed, flowery aroma that defies description. 
Port wines are classified by type. Vintage Port is made only in those years when the grapes achieve near total perfection and receive no processing other than two years of barrel aging. The wine attains its “magic” in the bottle over a period as long as thirty years. During that time, the wine will throw a heavy sediment and MUST be filtered or decanted prior to drinking.
A Late Bottled Vintage Port (LBV) is made of grapes from a single, but excellent year, and held in barrels for four to six years. The resultant wine will need no further bottle aging and will not throw a sediment.
Tawny Port is a blend that has been kept in barrels eight to twenty years to mellow and develop the velvet texture and rich flavor that has made this style famous. Because of a longer time in the wood, the color becomes lighter and browner than the other styles.
Ruby Port is the most readily available and popular style of this wine. Like Tawny, Ruby Port is a blend. The particular blend, best exemplifies the style of the house the wine represents. Ruby Port is kept for several years in the aging tanks to marry and mature before bottling.

Osborne 2003 Late Bottled Vintage Porto ($18.99). Although not declared a vintage year, the grapes did produce a vibrant wine with a hint of oak in the aroma and an expansive fruit flavor. If you like Port, Osborne Late Bottled Vintage Porto is an introduction to the better Port wines; if you are a novice, it will engender an undying love.

Sandeman Founders Reserve Porto ($18.29).This wine displays a big, sweet wine, full of berry fruit flavors and an ever present and delightfully haunting incense-like background, a signature of a Sandeman Port. This is the wine that has made Sandeman’s name, and it is the most popular and best loved of all the Port wines in the company’s line.

Cockburns Special Reserve ($18.29). Cockburns Special Reserve is a soft, elegant sipping wine that is loaded with fruit flavors. This wine is perfectly balanced with an almost overpowering aroma and a rich structure. The finish is exceptional; it is long,
fruity and seems to last forever. If you like Port, Cockburns Special Reserve is “a dream come true.”

Dows Boardroom Tawny ($23.99). The bright and inviting brownish hue of this wine identifies it as a Tawny Port. Although somewhat sweet, it is drier than most other Ports and possesses a spicy and nutty flavor which is coupled with a positive oak and caramel background. This excellent and very affordable wine is the perfect finish to a fine meal or a friendly get-together.

Osborn Ruby Port ($12.99). Ruby Port is the most common and best loved of all the Port wines. Osborn Ruby Port is a big wine; sweet, full of berry fruit flavors and the warmth that Port wines are famous for. This is not only a good wine but a great introduction if you are unfamiliar with the style.

Graham’s Six Grape Reserve Porto ($19.99) is an interesting blend of six local grapes from the Port grape growing region in Portugal. It is a very dignified and flavorful Port with a seductive flavor and aroma.

Montevina Terra D’Oro Zinfandel Port ($24). California zinfandel grapes were vinified exactly as one would a true Portuguese Port by the master winemakers of Montevina. This Port is a true delight that displays the flavors of strawberries, raspberries and almost every other berry flavor you know and even some you may not know and proves that Americans can make a Port as good as the Portuguese.