Liquor & SpiritsFortified & Dessert WinePort
A WINE IS BORN
For thousands of years, foreign aficionados have cherished the wine that
is grown in northeast Portugal on the mountainsides along the Douro River.
As far back as the first century B.C., the Greek historian, Polybius, in
his Land of Wine, noted that this wine sold at one drachma for a matreta
(27 liters). At the time of the Caesars, the Romans, who occupied the region,
introduced treading troughs and clay amphoras for making and aging the wine.
Viticulture became so popular that the Emperor Domitian had to order the
number of vineyards reduced by half to keep a balance with other agricultural
products.
Wine cultivation thrived during the Visagoth domination and survived the
Moorish occupation of the 8th to 12th centuries. From 1143, when Portugal
became an independent kingdom, Douro wine was often mentioned in royal decrees,
and by the 13th century it was shipped down the Douro River to the coastal
town of Porto, and exported as far afield as Holland.
Rui Fernandes, a courtier of King John 111, tells us that in 1532 the Douro
was producing the equivalent of 600,000 cases of wine. Noted for becoming
more perfumed with age, it was the best, longest-lived wine in the kingdom.
He said that the Spanish court in Castile, the royal court of Portugal,
and the local nobility and clergy treasured these fragrant wines. He also
gave a detailed description of the grapes used - some of the same varieties
used today.
The Portuguese historian, Joao de Barros, in his Geografia of 1548, cites
the quality of various wine locations from one end of the Douro to the other,
enthusing that "wonderful wines are harvested in the Douro, whence
they are shipped to the city of Porto."
By the beginning of the 17th century as many as 1,200,000 cases reached
Porto each year, and in 1638 a German diplomat named Cristiano Kopke founded
a Douro wine shipping company that is still in existence today. In 1675
wine destined for Holland was called for the first time by its modern name:
Porto. Although, by law, only wine produced in Portugal may be called Porto,
other countries accept and respect its translation (Port or Port wine).
As the 17th century drew to a close, an event took place that would give
Porto universal fame and prestige: it was discovered by the British, who
spread its fame all over the world.
THE BRITISH DISCOVER PORTO WINE
There was a flourishing English colony in the city of Viana do Castelo,
50 miles north of Porto, in the early 17th century. There, British merchants
imported woolen goods from England, and exported agricultural products and
a light, crisp coastal wine now called "Red Vinho Verde." Not
popular with the British gentry, it was used as "sailors rations."
When political problems arose between France and England in the 1660s, Bordeaux,
the wine of choice of the well-bred Englishman, became virtually impossible
to obtain. The Viana merchants tried to market their "sailor"
wine as a substitute, but in vain. They next proffered the richer, more
aromatic Porto wines from the Douro and met with such success, that they
changed the center of their activities to the town of Porto. The first English
Porto firm was Warre in 1670, followed by Croft, Quales-Harris and, by the
end of the century, Taylor-Fladgate. Many others were founded in subsequent
centuries.
Porto became the favorite wine of the Whig party and in 1689, in the presence
of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese widow of Charles II, Porto was
used to toast William and Mary at their coronation. Dr. Samuel Johnson subsequently
claimed that "Claret is the liquor for boys, and Port for men"
and John Croft that "any Englishman of decent condition... cannot dispense
with it...."
In 1678, the earliest year from which export records exist, there were 24,000
cases of Porto shipped to England; in 1693 780,000, escalating to 1,500,000
by 1728. The English had taken a new wine to their hearts.
This rapid rise in popularity led to abuses and falsifications until in
the 1740s, to meet demand, growers and shippers were adding elderberry juice
and wines from distant regions to the pure product. A consequent loss in
quality caused a loss in demand, and the number of cases shipped plummeted
to 750,000 by the end of the decade. This prompted the Portuguese authorities,
in 1756, to found a "Companhia Geral da Agricultura dos Vinhos do Alto
Douro", to control all aspects of production. The exact boundaries
of the Douro region, and strict regulations to insure the authenticity of
the wine, were set by 1761. These pioneering measures led to unprecedented
quality control, and provided a model for the demarcation of wine regions
in other countries. Shipments to England consequently rose to a spectacular
3,500,000 cases by 1799.
Today, control is better than ever. The Porto Wine Institute in Porto, and
the Casa do Douro in Regua, both founded in 1933, oversee every aspect from
the vine to the consumer.
Ironically, the French, who were indirectly responsible for the English
infatuation with Porto, in the late 20th century drink three times as much
Porto as the English - more than any other nation.
AMERICA'S PASSION FOR PORTO
America began drinking Porto a century after England for a very practical
reason. As long as America was an English colony all European products had
to be shipped to it on British ships. Americans therefore preferred to drink
wine from Madeira, then considered part of Africa, so they could use American
ships for its transport.
After America achieved independence in 1776, it began importing Porto. Between
1783 and 1799 Americans were drinking an average of 85,000 cases a year.
An American named Joseph Cano even became a partner in a Porto company in
the first two decades of the 1 9th century. Americans have never caught
up to the British or French in quantity, but the demand for quality Portos
is higher than anyplace else.
Americans are second only to the English in most years as consumers of Vintage
Porto, and in some years America is the world's first market. Moreover,
it tripled its overall consumption between the beginning and end of the
1980's.
PORTO AN HISTORIC TRANSFORMATION
What was Porto like in the 17th and 18th centuries compared to the present
day? It is a common misconception that Porto, as soon as the English discovered
it, was transformed from a rich, dry table wine into the sweet, fortified
dessert wine we know today.
This myth has been perpetuated by the famous, but apocryphal story of two
young wine merchants from Liverpool who stopped at a monastery in Lamego
in 1678 and were given a sweet, rich, fortified wine which they enjoyed
so much they bought all they could obtain, and shipped it to England.
However, the usual practice of that time was to add 15 liters of brandy
per pipe (550 liters) or ahout3%, of the total volume of wine to preserve
it for shipment. Today about 100 liters per pipe, or 20%., of the total
volume of Porto, is brandy added early to arrest fermentation, retain sweetness
and raise the alcohol to about 20%. If the Abbot of Lamego made his wine
this way it was an isolated instance, as this was not standard practice
until after 1850. Therefore, most likely this monastery, owning some of
the best vineyards, produced a full, fruity wine known as "Priest's
Port", which seemed richer and sweeter than others of the time.
The transformation was, in fact, a more leisurely process. The real catalyst
occurred in 1820 when there was a particularly ripe vintage and all the
sugars in the juice could not be converted to alcohol, so that an extraordinarily
sweet, rich wine was produced naturally. English consumers clamored for
more, and so producers began to stop fermentation sooner and sooner by adding
increasing amounts of brandy to emulate the prized wine of 1820.
This practice was very controversial, and the renowned Porto producer, Baron
James Forrester, as late as 1850, condemned the addition of any brandy at
all. His opinion was eventually overruled, hut until 1900 producers continued
to make Porto in three different styles: Dry, with minimal added alcohol
and fermented dry, Medium, with more brandy and some sweetness retained,
and Rich, approximating the modern practice of retaining about 10% residual
sugar while adding 20% to the liquid volume in the form of 77 degree brandy.
George Saintsbury, the great 19th century connoisseur, mentions in his writings
how much he enjoyed all three styles from great years such as 1851.
Since 1900 it can be safely assumed that all Porto is in the modern Rich,
fortified, sweet style.