Ep. 1070 Map 35 Port | Jumbo Shrimp Maps

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My name is Joe Gordon Smith, and this is map number thirty nine, and we're talking about another fortified wine port. So port's the most famous wine of the douro, one of the world's oldest abilations. It was first demarcated in seventeen fifty six, and it's become one of the world's most copied wine styles. And port is now a protected term in the EU. The production of port is overseen and enforced by the Duroport Wine Institute or the IVDP, which is the regulatory body. So let's talk about the climate. So it's very warm and it's a warm continental climate and the further inland that you go along the Duro River, it becomes hotter. The vineyards are divided into three subregions. So you have the Bayshore Co with the lightest wines, the chimer Corgo with the greatest number of the top vineyards are found, and then the Duro superior, which although it's still Sparsley planted is also renowned as a source of top quality wine. So broadly speaking, it's a warm continental climate because it it's shielded from the cool rain bearing Atlantic winds by the Sarah Domaro, but the climate's not uniform. In the west, in the Bayshekorgo, it's the coolest and wettest. But as we go further inland, the vineyards become hotter and drier. So the growers have to contend with things like frost in spring and also There's quite heavy downpours on occasion that can disrupt flowering and can also disrupt harvest. In the summer, daytime temperatures can be really high and rainfall through the growing seasons really low. But thanks to the Shist bedrock, which is fractures vertically and allows the vines roots to access deep water reserves. They can do, some very good vita culture. So the vineyards in the Baysho and Chima Korgo are planted on the tall and steep slopes that rise up from the banks of the Dua River and its tributaries. So it's a very varied topography. It can be exploited by the growers. So there's quite clear temperature difference between the top and the bottom of a slope, and that's due to the change in altitude. So some sites have a more northerly aspect, and they're deliberately used because they want stay away from the full force of the sun, but it's still very hard to manage vineyards on such steep slopes, and it's a very costly challenge. Main black varieties that are used, there are actually twenty nine recommended varieties and over eighty authorized for use, and they were traditionally planted with field blends, but now we're getting more single variety vineyards. So quality is really improving. So the top five black varieties are tinta rorries, which is known otherwise as tempranillo, and that has high yields add some finesse. It's a lighter style grape. Taureka nationale would be the finest grape of the duro. So that gives a low yield of small berries and small bunches. It's early maturing, very full bodied and concentrated. It makes very full bodied traded wines, and it's used for the best wines. Tariga Franca is a premium grape, and that needs a warm location. It's quite deep colored. It's well structured and quite robust, and it's the beautiful perfume that it gives that makes it very interesting to use in these wines. Tinta cow, a small percentage is used. It's very late ripening, and there's very small bunches of tiny grapes, which adds more tannin to the wines, and then tinta baroque with larger berries and bunches, quite thin skinned and prone to being a dehydrated style. Traditionally, The plantings are on those steep slopes on the banks of the duro and the tributaries. They're planted on shallow soils over schist bedrock. That splits vertically allows the roots to go deep in search of water. They don't have to use a lot of treatments because of the hot dry summers. And the biggest challenge would be the steep slopes. The narrow flat terraces called Socalcos are basically three rows of vines and they can't be mechanized. There's still forty percent of the vineyard area, but there's a real issue with the walls. The Stonewalls collapsing. There are wider slope of terraces called Petamares, and they were developed in the seventies with road access built into the slope. And then in the nineteen eighties, the untarassed Viner alto lauer layout was developed. So rows of vines are planted up and down the slope and accessed by roads cutting across the slope. There are some problems with erosion, though, because the vineyards still retain a slope. So the duro superior yore has a higher percentage of flatter vineyards and more mechanization. The cost of Viticulture is cheaper there, but there are problems with the low rainfall. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp. For fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local food, and taking in the scenery. Now back to the show. It's probably a really good idea to have a look at the beneficial, the system that's used to control port production. So the IVDP authorizes them into yields based on quality. So the beneficial is based on a certain, criteria that was laid down in the nineteen forties, and it's classified according to yield, grape, aspect, and soil type. So each vineyard is graded from a to f with a being the best, and f the worst. So seven soil and climate factors are scored, location, altitude, exposure, bedrock, rough matter, slope, and shelter. And the next fiber based on the vine itself, the type of vine, the planting density, the yield, the training system, and the vine age. It doesn't appear on the label, but it is the basis of the beneficial authorization. So this is the maximum amount of wine that can be fortified in any given year, and it's based on those twelve factors. The rights can be sold to grapes so you can buy from lesser producers or unofficially use the rights to maximize the use of the higher quality grapes. So it really is something that does control the maximum amount of one that can be four to fide in any particular year. So in the winery, we need to get a rapid extraction of color and tanner in the first twenty four to thirty six hours. So extraction's the key, and that can be done by foot treading, which traditionally has been done with people in the laguars that would stab their feet according to a beat, and of course using feet, you didn't crush the pips. So you'll get lots of extraction without any of the bitter characters, also auto vinaifiers, which are a great way to do this, as well as a robotic legar, which mimics the feet that is made of metal or piston plungers. They're like round, shallow, open top stainless steel vats where the caps pressed down with the robotic pistons. So the wine is then fortified and pressed after that twenty four to thirty six hours, and the foot treading or auto mini fires are a great way to do this. So when the sugar's been converted to between six to nine percent, a grape based spirit at around seventy seven percent ABV is added. So it's in a one to four proportion, so that kills the yeast, and it stops the fermentation. And this is what gives port its fiery character. It's called aguadente, and it has a low level of vacation, and that's added to the grape must and stops the fermentation. Wines are historically aged in Villanova DeGaya on the coast. Some tawnies might be aged upstream where it's hotter, and they're aged in pipes which are between five hundred and fifty liters to six hundred and twenty liters, and only seasoned casks and vats are used to age ports. So no new wood ruby styles are very often aged in large oak or steel. So let's talk about the styles. So white port coming from white grapes, so cercio, they're golden in color, low in acid. You get honey nut aromas, dry to sweet. They're usually non vintage and sold when they're very young between two and three years of age. Ruby port's very deeply colored and fruity and it's bottled ready to drink. And then you have reserved ruby port. So they're a higher quality wine from one or more vintages. They're a little bit more full bodied with richer fruit, better integrated alcohol, and they don't need decanting. And then late bottled vintage, which is a ruby port from a specific year that's been aged between four and six years before bottling. Usually, these don't need decanting and they're ready to drink. A modern LVV is usually fine and filtered before bottling. They have a stopper cork, and they're ready for use. They're rich They're more complex flavors in a reserve ruby port and have a little bit more of a tannic grip. The label will include the year of bottling and the year of vintage. Then bottle matured LTVs, they're refined, unfiltered, and they improve in the bottle, and they need three more years aging in the sellers. They have a a driven cork and need to be decanted. So very similar, a bottle matured, late bottle vintage to a vintage port. You'll have twenty ports that are paler and browner in color, and they've been aged in a cast, so they're bottled ready to drink. Now a reserve tawny port has at least seven years in wood. It's more complex. It's smoother and russet tawny in color, and will be a blend from different vintages. And you'll have tawny ports with an age indicated. So the average age only ten, twenty, thirty, or over forty years rather than the age of the youngest component in the blend. So the label states the year of the bottling, and they're probably the finest of all tawny ports, very complex and concentrated with lots of walnut, coffee, chocolate, and caramel. There's also, Quita ports. They're the rarest and the best. They're wines of a single vintage, aged in wood until just before sale, and they have a minimum of eight years. Also vintage dated tawny ports where the label states the vintage. It's been aged in cask, and then it's bottled. Also vintage ports, so they're intended for aging in the bottle, and they only have a short maturation before bottling, and they're bottle when they're between eighteen months and three years. And they're the longest lived wines anywhere. They can be the finest wines from the best vineyards. They're rich and tanic when they're young. They mature very slowly. They have a very heavy deposit and they should be decanted. Single Kinter vintage ports are made in the same ways of vintage port, but they're the product of a single estate. Otherwise known as a Kinter, and the name of the Kinter appears on the label. Ports are generally transported downstream to Villa Novadegaia for maturation because the climate's slightly cooler in its coastal, and it's well suited to the slow maturation of port wines. The tawny ports are often stored in the duro, though, where the higher temperatures result in faster aging and a loss in color. Now we have air condition warehouses, more wines being aged in the vineyard area. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by Italian wine Academy, offering WSET levels one, two, and three in English. Visit our website at italian wine academy dot org for more information and sign up today to start your personal adventure in global wine education right here in the heart of verona. 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