Hospitality World

1. There is more to Portuguese wine than just port. While port is what put Portugal on the world wine map, today there are many winemakers producing dry wines -- red, white, rose, and even sparkling wine. 2. A Portuguese dry wine is not port. Even if a traditional Port producer makes a dry wine. What's the difference between port and dry wine? Port is what's called a fortified wine, meaning it has been beefed up by adding a wine spirit, such as brandy, during the fermentation process that turns grape juice into wine. The brandy stops the fermentation cold, before all of the sugar in the grape juice is converted into alcohol. This is why ports are sweet, and a dessert wine. Even though fermentation is halted, the brandy increases the alcohol level of the port, and a fortified wine is the result. The dry wines are fermented dry and are not sweet. No wine spirit or brandy is added. They are made just like any other dry wine. 3. Portuguese wine equals value.   One ad...

Port is a fortified, full-bodied sweet red wine made by adding brandy to fermenting wine. The high alcohol content of brandy causes fermentation to stop, killing all yeast activity, and therefore sugar is no longer converted into alcohol. Brandy also raises the final alcohol level of the wine. The result is a sweet wine in perfect balance with the alcohol content, usually in the 18-20% alcohol by volume range with 100 g/L or more of residual sugar. Port, also known as porto, derives its name from the Portuguese city of Oporto, in the Douro Valley, where it originated more than three centuries ago.   The Douro Valley Port is produced from a blend of many different dark-skinned grape varieties, up to 20 or more, often harvested from multiple vineyards, each imparting a different characteristic to the final wine. Dark-skinned grapes are used to give port its deep colour. Among these varieties, Touriga Nacional and Tempranillo are the most popular. STYLES of PORT Variou...