Age designation and Classics
Age designation: Good quality Port wine with permission to use age designation. Age designations are: 10 year old, 20 year old, 30 year old and over 40 year old. Tawny: Port wine obtained from blends of, usually, 3 year-old wines aged in wine seasoned casks. This way, they don’t present the characteritsics of oak ageing. During the ageing process several rackings are performed in order to force oxidation and endow the wine with a golden colour. Ruby: Wine whose colour resembles that of the precious stone called ruby. This happens because the ageing process has little or no oxidation (usually up to three years in wooden barrels). It is a young, full bodied wine rich in fruity aromas. Rose is the most recent innovation in the Port Wine world. It’s a fresh, smooth and versatile Porto wine. The pink color is obtained by maceration of very intense red grapes and the process excludes oxidation during its storage. White Ports differ from each other’s in sweetness and ageing period. The youngest Ports are normally drunk in the beginning of meals. The oldest ones have longest ageing periods and intense flavors and should be drunk at dessert. According to sweetness level white Port has four categories: Extra Seco, Seco, Doce and Lágrima.
Colheita
Good quality tawny Port from one single harvest. Before being bottled, the wine goes through an ageing period in wood of, at least, seven years. Although Tawny is not a blend wine, it undergoes rackings and fillings during its ageing process. While the wine ages, its fresh, fruity aromas oxidise and are transformed into a bouquet (group of aromas), from which the aromas of dry fruit, wood and spices stand out.
Vintage
Vintage is an excellent quality wine made up of one single harvest. It is considered the king of Port wines, representing only a small percentage of the total production of Port. It is a very dark, full bodied red wine that becomes softer after ageing in bottle. In Portugal, IVDP (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto – Port and Douro Wines Institute) is the entity responsible for recognising and classifying Port wines as “vintage”.
LBV
Good quality Port wine with good ageing potential. It has a harvest date and is usually obtained from a blend of wines from that harvest. In the Late Bottled Vintage category one also finds the “Envelhecido em garrafa” or Bottle Matured Port. This is a high quality Port that ages in bottle for, at least, three years and can thus create a deposit.