Wine is mostly considered a man’s domain, but that is not always the case – at least not when it comes to port. This sweet wine named after the city of Porto is still drunk worldwide and is a timeless classic constantly being renewed. However, the history of port wine is not as well-known as that of alcoholic beverages. For this reason, we travelled to Porto – or Oporto as the Spanish call it – to visit the port wine bodegas’ home harbour, Vila Nova de Gaia.
Located right across the Douro River, Gaia is easily reached from Porto via a pedestrian bridge or a refreshing five-minute boat ride. In this charming harbour area, one can stroll from one historic port house to the next and simultaneously admire the felucca-like Rabelo boats that were used to transport wine barrels from the vineyards to the harbour.
Since virtually all the port wine producers in Gaia offer guided tours that end with wine tastings, it is hard to decide which bodega one wants to visit. But only one of the port wine houses had a female front figure, so this is the bodega that I want to get to know. It is neither the oldest, the most famous nor the biggest, but it is perhaps the one with the most exciting past.
Port wine, a short history lesson
Just as Champagne can only be named such, if it comes from the French Champagne region, only sweet wine produced from grapes from the Douro Valley can be called port. Traditionally, the wine also had to be stored in the valley, but later it was allowed to age the wine in the bodegas at the Gaia port.
Grapes for winemaking have been cultivated in the rugged terrain of the Douro Valley since Roman times. It is the world’s oldest demarcated and regulated wine region, established in 1756. The wine-growing area with its special microclimate is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list and has Portugal’s highest legally protected Designation of Origin – Denominaçāo de Origem Controlada (DOC).
Port wine is an essential part of Portugal’s economy. Even today it accounts for approximately 1/5 of the country’s exports. The English wine merchant Croft (Anno 1588) claims to be the world’s oldest Port Wine House. Although the history is somewhat unclear, it is documented that Croft at least arranged the first recorded export of Douro wine between Portugal and England in the late 17th Century. According to other sources, the first port wine house (that still exists in Gaia) is Kopke, founded in 1638 by Nicolau Kopke and his son who came to Porto as representatives for the Hanseatic League. On the other hand, written sources confirm that the English-owned port house Warre’s arranged the first registered shipment of port wine to England in 1678.
Since ordinary wine was easily spoilt during sea voyages, the producers added a splash of pure grape spirits to it. This increased the shelf life and gave the wine ‘sea legs’. From the second half of the 18th Century, the British had the greatest influence over the history of port wine, especially after Portugal and England signed a trade agreement in 1703 where they traded Portuguese wine for British textiles. The success was so overwhelming that it is said that the English imported a whooping 44 million litres of port in 1799 – at the time equivalent to approximately five litres per capita per year!
The oldest port wine in existence today is a Ferreira Vintage Port from 1815 – from before the Phylloxera pest killed almost all the grape plants in Europe!
A copy of the extremely rare bottle is still available thanks to the forward-thinking widow who became a pioneer of Portugal’s port wine production and wine industry. And this is whom we now shall meet.
The widows take over
Most people know the champagne Veuve Clicquot, which means Widow Clicquot. Mdm. Clicquot (born Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, 1777-1866) became a widow already at the age of 27 and had to take over her husband’s businesses, including champagne production. The clever businesswoman invented new production methods, created the first pink champagne and played a significant role in developing champagne as a global product. However, while La Grande Dame de Champagne became word famous, (if not the widow, at least the bottle with the recognizable yellow label…) other widows who influenced the world of wine have received far less attention.
Dona Antonia Adeleide Ferreira (1811- 1886) became a widow at 33 and inherited the family business Ferreira Port House and the Quinta do Vallado vineyards. As the fourth generation of the family and the first woman, she took over the company and made it into one of Portugal’s most important and successful port wine houses.
But the widow, who at the time was the country’s wealthiest woman, didn’t limit herself to just managing the family fortune. She invested in her beloved Douro region and became a respected producer in a male-dominated world. Dona Antonia combined tradition with innovation and introduced, amongst other things, a new bottling system. She insisted that wine quality was most important for a company’s reputation, further strengthening her name in the wine world.
Dona Antonia was a symbol of entrepreneurship, viticulture and altruism. “Everyone should do all they can for the good of humanity” stated the woman who championed worker’s rights and contributed to the construction of hospitals and other social institutions. When the Phylloxera destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of people in the Douro Valley in the 1870s, the visionary businesswoman went to England to learn modern scientific techniques to combat the pest. Equipped with the new knowledge, she planted American grapes as rootstock and gave the local populations work. Her cultivation methods spread throughout the region. Even today, the grapes from several Douro Valle vineyards originate from Ferreira’s vines.
When Dona Antonia died in 1896, nearly 85 years old, she left behind not only a considerable fortune, dozens of wine estates, and thousands of barrels of vintage port wine, but also a humanitarian legacy that has made the widow and her port wine house recognized far beyond her native country.
And while we’re on the subject of wine widows, one shouldn’t forget the wine widow Hanna Weinberger, who took over her husband’s vineyard in the Napa Valley in 1882 after he was shot dead by a disgruntled employee who made flirtatious moves on their daughter. Ms. Weinberger became California’s first female winemaker, and just like the other wine widows, she paved the road for other women in the wine industry.
Visiting the Ferrerira Port Wine House
Ferreira’s bodega is located a little beyond the other bodegas on the banks of the Douro River. The port wine house was started by the family Ferreiras from Régua in the Douro-Valley in 1751 and maintains the traditions and knowledge passed down through generations for over 270 years. Ferreira is also the only port wine house that still is and always has been in Portuguese hands. Today’s owners, Sogrape Vinho S.A, a Portuguese family business, have preserved the Porto Ferreira brand and the original Quinta do Porto vineyards. The bodega’s quality wine is still grown on these Douro estates, but since 1825, all their port wine has been aged in the bodegas in Vila Nova de Gaia.
Our young guide who speaks excellent English, meets us at the main entrance of the huge early 18th Century bodega. The tour starts in a converted office honouring Dona Antonia and exhibits her letters, contracts, stamps, and a replica of her distinctive black widow dress.
The next stop is an enormous oak barrel holding over 70.000 litres, where their Ruby Port is stored. These barrels are cleaned with boiling water by someone climbing into the barrel and scrubbing the wood. Ferreira still has barrel makers, and we are told that these enormous wads can last 40-50 years before they get recycled, while a traditional oak barrel can last around a century.
As we continue our tour in the bodega’s fragrant halls, we learn about the peculiarities of the art of port-making. More than 80 grape varieties can reportedly be used to produce port wine, and the most important varieties used in traditional red port are Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cão, Tinta Barroca and Touriga Franca. The latter is the easiest to grow and therefore the most common, while Touriga Nacional is the ‘moodiest’ which hence makes the most sought-after port wine.
Aroma of wild roses and tobacco
At the end of the tour, we sit down to taste a selection of Ferreira’s port wines, starting with the lighter white and rose ports, before moving only to the amber and ruby red varieties. With its unique character and complexity, port wine offers a rare experience for wine connoisseurs. Just listen to how Ferreira describes one of their Port wines:
Ferreira Vintage Vinhas Velhas 2016 has a dark, almost impenetrable red colour and an aroma of excellent complexity and intensity. It has balsamic notes of resin and tobacco, floral tones of rockrose and spicy notes such as black pepper and clove. It has further hints of menthol, mineral nuances and a little cocoa: the result of an excellent maturation. On the palate, the wine is dense with a vibrant acidity conferring excellent balance. It has firm and robust tannins of great quality and additional notes of green tea, rockrose and basil. Its finish is extremely long, elegant and complex.
With the tragic wine pest in mind, Dona Antonia kept some of the harvests and stored an emergency stock at Quinta do Vallado. When her grandchildren took over the port wine house in 1986, 90 years after her passing, they discovered large quantities of port wine in the wine cellars. This included rare vintages from 1815, 1820, 1834 and 1847, which no other port house had available. Thanks to Dona Antonia’s visions of the future, we can enjoy the fruits of her hard labour even today!
TYPES, STORAGE AND SERVING TIPS
There are many different port wines, but most fall into four categories.
Ruby Port is usually stored for a relatively short period and is not improved by further storage. This category includes, amongst others, Vintage Port (considered the pinnacle of port and can mature over several decades) and Late Bottled Vintage (LBV).
Tawny Port is an amber-coloured, barrel-aged port that undergoes a different ageing process with extended maturation in smaller oak barrels, something that gives Tawny complex nut- and caramel flavours. Colheita Port is a unique Tawny made from a single vintage and aged for a minimum of seven years before bottled.
White port wine is less known than its red siblings but deserves recognition for its fresh and versatile flavours that go from dry to sweet.
The newest addition to the port family, Rose port wine, is made like a regular rosé wine and has an elegant and refreshing taste.
Port wine should be served just below room temperature, around 16 °C. It can be combined with strong-tasting dishes and favours aged cheeses, roasted meats and rich desserts.
Storage follows the same rules as other red wines, with cool, dark storage environments. Port wines that have been stored or produced using traditional methods are unfiltered. This means that you probably will have sediments in the bottle.
The life of a port after the bottle is opened varies, but it is much shorter than most people realize. To ensure you can enjoy the wine at its best, follow this simple guide: Port wine with a normal cork should be drunk within two or three days. Port wine with a cork that can be removed by hand and easily drawn from the bottle can generally be stored in a constantly cool place for three to four weeks without significant deterioration in quality.
