Port Wine tasting in Portugal

The highlight of my trip to Portugal was the wine tasting we did at the cellars along the Douro Valley. I visited 5 different unique cellars. Unique because of the types of port wines each one specialized in, their size, their origin, and the facilities themselves.

The origin of Port wines is Portugal. Its called Port because of the formula used in these wines, which is basically the addition of spirit to stop the fermentation process. Then they are aged in big oak vats inside cellars that are climate controlled. The taste of the wines vary depending on age and the alocohol content. A very interesting detail here is port wines contain more alcohol than regular wines upto 20% in some varieties. I got to taste all ages of port wines and decided I like the 'tawny' variety the most. It is dark in color and the sweetest of them all.

There is also the LBV, Late Bottled Vintage which is fairly expensive. These wines bring the taste of Vintage Port but without the need for lengthy bottle aging. One of my purchases included an LBV bottle.

There is more to these Port Wines than what I have here such as how they should be served, stored and consumed which I will touch upon another time. Until then, look for port wines in stores and try the LBV in particular.