Using Meat to Make Port

[Derek T.]

The history of Port is full of little stories that have been handed down by mouth from father to son, some of which are legendary. Perhaps the most unbelievable one is the old wife's tale that you cannot make Port without adding meat to the wine. It ay appear paradoxical, even absurd, to think that winemakers actually use meat to make their Port. The information that I obtained as I attempted to get to the roots of this tale was also given to me by mouth, as I spoke to old farmers and shippers, all of whom had retired long ago.

As you might expect, there is some basis to this story although it has been greatly embellished in its telling and one must separate the myth from the fact. The facts are that I have heard everything you could imagine about this matter: that you had to put a cured ham into the casks, that whole sheep were used to improve the wine and other such flights of carnivorous fancy.

As far as I was able to determine, although I could find no written proof of this, was that cow bones, stripped of most of their meat, were used to add body to the wine; in local parlance, to "fix" the wine. One of the principle shippers actually told me that they only stopped this practice in 1970.

Yet another source informed me that bacon was used during treading. Apparently, unsalted slabs of cured bacon were placed in the lagar and were crushed by the workers along with the grapes. The yeasts in the wine would then feed off the fat that would break off from the bacon, making it easier for them to reproduce and thus trigger the fermentation. When the wine was drawn off, all the bacon had disappeared, "devoured" by the yeasts.

Discuss.

[Andy Velebil]

I'm no rocket scientist, but I would think it highly unlikey that yeast could totally devour chunks of meat in a lagar during fermentation

[Eric Menchen]

Yes, and I don't think "devour" is a very good term to use. However, the yeast could possibly use some of the fatty acids from bacon to build up their cell walls. In brewing beer, the unfermented wort is oygenated when yeast is pitched so that the yeast can build up their cell walls, depleted from their work of fermenting a previous batch of beer. But oxygen is otherwise a bad thing in beer and wine, so Grady Hull, working on his Masters in Brewing and Distilling proposed add olive oil instead of oxygenating. Instead of having the yeast aerobically do all that work to synthesize fatty acids, just supply it to them directly. His experiments appeared to demonstrate that this could work. Here's a link to his thesis:
http://www.brewcrazy.com/hull-olive-oil-thesis.pdf
Now, does bacon contain lineolic acid, and can the yeast readily get to it?

[Eric Ifune]

The yeasts may metabolize some of the meat products, but I think that if the meat dissolves, it was probably due to the acidity of the must.

[Roy Hersh]

If I did not see who had authored the article I would probably have laughed it off. Having spent some time with Joao Paulo (he interviewed me in Portugal two years ago) and the fact that he is probably the most knowledgeable wine writer in all of Portugal, I'd have to believe that at least in days of yore, this practice may have occasionally taken place. I have dozens of very old books from the late 1800s and early 1900s and have never seen this mentioned anywhere until now. Very interesting to say the least. I can see where the bones like in a stock would release marrow and provide some body to grape mosto in a lagar, especially as the juice warms.

However, it is really easy to also think this might just be old wives' tales and could be a VERY limited practice in a specific district or town. Who knows.

[John F. Newman]

My brother-in-law swears that I have never had "real" port. Why? Because real port is made by placing a whole cow into the vat. I questioned him on this, and he is adamant that REAL port is made that way. I at least got him to remove the skin from his original version, but he won't back down from this. (My brother-in-law is one of a kind... "Old school" would be too modern for him. He is from a town near Aveiro, PT, I believe about an hour south of Oporto)

I was tempted to post on this subject earlier, but couldn't figure out how to phrase it without being laughed off the Internet.

[Andy Velebil]

My brother-in-law swears that I have never had "real" port. Why? Because real port is made by placing a whole cow into the vat. I questioned him on this, and he is adamant that REAL port is made that way. I at least got him to remove the skin from his original version, but he won't back down from this. (My brother-in-law is one of a kind... "Old school" would be too modern for him. He is from a town near Aveiro, PT, I believe about an hour south of Oporto)

I was tempted to post on this subject earlier, but couldn't figure out how to phrase it without being laughed off the Internet.

We won't laugh at you. Your brother-in-law however....

[Kurt Wieneke]

I had always wondered where that beef broth nuance in the nose of some VP's came from. I always figured it was from the Touriga Nacional or some other varietal.

[Paul_B]

Hi all,

as a kid, I was told that story too, "meat from a baby calf in the lagar", more than once too, I laughed every time. As this always came to me from people who rarely if ever drink port and never from anyone near Douro region...So to me, since I like conspiracy theories...These stories were started by wine producers in other regions trying to deter the consumption of Port. hihihi. Ok disregard that last part.

cheers
Paul