Porto - The Home of Port

PORTO – 17^th September

 

Porto is a lovely city and we enjoyed a couple of days in the new marina. We visited some port houses and made some purchases. Oli and Ethan wanted us to buy them a bottle from their year of birth. Ethan had the best vintage since 2000 and it attracted a price tag of €137 for a bottle. We did find one for €65 in a lesser port producer. Oli being 2001 had not been a vintage year but did warrant a single year production from one vineyard. He was €52 a bottle. Although the idea was nice to keep for a special birthday the complexity of storing it and sailing it several thousand miles was impractical. We did buy a bottle of 1997 single vineyard vintage as a wedding anniversary present. At €35 it was similar to a bottle of champagne but should last a bit longer. We did get to try before we bought so at least we know it is good. It is likely on the 3rd October we will be at sea heading to Madeira so may have to have a delayed tasting. We also bought a bottle for Christmas.

The boys have written their own review of the history and how port is made, please find below. We went on a bus tour the next day. The boys took lots of pictures.

We went on a cable car up to a large bridge crossing the river. It was very high and was also the metro line which was quite strange.

On the last day a catamaran called Intrepid Bear came in with 3 kids on board. 2 girls (9 & 6) and a boy (4 to be 5 next Tuesday). We had a nice evening in the bar and said we would catch up with them soon. They were on the waiting list for the Arc and were accepted on the way down. This has made the boys happy. We also met a German family with a 5 and 2 year old boys. They were keen to find children so although not part of the Arc we think our paths will cross as we head further south and across the pond.

Porto is a lovely city and I would really like to visit again. We left to go to Figuera da Foz 65 miles south and just for a quick over night before a further 35 miles to Nazare .

We had a windless trip and to add insult thick fog for several hours which was very eerie.

We stumbled across 2 more Arc boats in Figuera. A Swedish boat with an 8 year old called Erica and one of the smallest boats in the fleet a Rival 32.

 

Port wine. By Oliver Hawkins

Port is a selection of the most expensive wines, advancing up to a whopping £2,500.00 for a single bottle. The history of this good quality wine is not all about Portugal.

The production of port started around the 17^th century when Britain was cut off from their wine supplies because of frequent wars with France. They liked the wines from Portugal but the wine went bad on its Atlantic sea voyage when fermentation continued happening. Fermentation is when the sugar turns to alcohol and too much makes the wine bad to drink. Then a British man put brandy in it, which stopped the fermentation so it would last longer. The wine was named port.

The grapes are picked in Douro valley where the wine is made. In Douro valley the women cut and carry one basket of grapes the men just carry. They carry two baskets one on each shoulder. Then the woman and some men sort the grapes by colour and quality. 

The process used to make port is as simple as squashing the grapes with your feet, since this takes time sometimes a machine is used. 

It is then transported to Porto by lorry, but many years ago it was taken by boat and you can still see these today and take a trip on the river. The wine will spend most of its life aging in barrels in caves.  They are left in Porto because it is near the sea and it is 80% humidity which the port matures best in.

The barrels are made by the cooper which means they are not all regularly sized. The system which is used consists of one barrel being as much as an ox can carry which is 550 litres. An almude is as much as a lady can carry on her head which is 25 litres and a Canada is as much as a man is allowed to drink of port in a day which is a mere 2 litres.

Some years are called vintage, which is when the wine is exceptional. These years have to be perfect, requiring a hot dry summer and a cold wet winter. The wine is tested after one year and the wine master will declare it a vintage. A vintage spends 2 years in the big vats before being bottled. Vintage is the only port that matures in the bottle. The best recent vintage year was 2003. To prevent the cork from drying out, the bottle should be stored on its side.  

Ruby and Tawny are both left in the vat for 2 to 3 years are bottled and sold ready to drink. 

To conclude, port is traditionally served on its own at the end of the meal with walnuts and dried fruit. Custom dictates that the port shall be passed clockwise round the table allowing each guest to fill their glass in turn. Port is one of the nicest wines with its different aging proses this makes it very special.

 

Port – by Ethan Hawkins

The people that make port first have to harvest the grapes in September and October, before they start doing everything else. They have ladies that cut the grapes and carry big bowls of grapes on their heads. The men have to carry two big crates of it on their back. They cannot use the machines because the valleys are too narrow and steep. After they harvest them and carry them up the hill they get separated and get cleaned. Then men or machines smash the grapes to get all the juice. This gets put into big barrels that can hold up to 100,000 litres. Brandy is added to the fermenting wine. This causes fermentation to stop and makes the wine sweet. The wine can stay in the barrels for up to 300 years. In a few years they pour some into little barrels or if vintage it matures in the bottle. 2003 was a vintage year and a bottle would cost €137.90. Vintage is the best.  

Sometimes the small barrel of port gets port back into the big barrel of port to make it a bit nicer. After that happens the port goes into the bottles and they put the sticker on and then they get put into the shops.

The people that make the barrels are called coopers. A barrel should hold 550 litres and is called a pipe and is as much as an ox cart can carry. An almude is 25 litres and is as much as a woman should carry on their heads. A Canada is 2 litres or as much as a man should drink every day. The barrels cannot always be 550 litres because they are made by a man. So they might have to add more port to fill a bigger barrel. If a barrel held 627 litres it would be made up of 1 pipe, 3 alumude and 1 canada. 

 

Red grapes make red port and green grapes make white port. The boats that are now travelling on the river were boats that carried port from the vineyard to the caves.

There are many different ports called; vintage, rose, ruby, tawny, colheita and white.

 Written by Ethan.