For The Love Of Port

Hi,



I've been reading alot of tasting notes lately and several times I've come across the term 'Douro Bake'
What exactly does this term cover? is there a similar reference or can you narrow it down for me

Of course I'm aware what the Douro is, but the 'bake'?

Regards,
Claus

Hi Claus,

Until very recently, storage conditions in the Douro weren't as good as the conditions in the lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia. The lodges in Gaia maintain a fairly even temperature all year long and are relatively cool. (I would guess between 15 and 18 degrees C.) Unfortunately conditions in the Douro can vary a lot - temperatures can go over 40 C during the summer and below 0 C during the winter. A storage facility doesn't vary that much, but they do tend to get much warmer than the lodges in Gaia.

Douro bake refers to an oxidized or "cooked" flavor of a Port that suffered from this temperature variation because it was stored in the Douro instead of in Gaia. This is normally only found in aged tawnies because rubies were normally shipped to Gaia the spring following the harvest.

I hope that helps!

Thanks Glenn,

I did have heat in mind as a potential player here - nice to get it confirmed.

Since I come from a spirit background in Single Malts, I know the issue of heat/cold as a factor in maturing whisky.
Right now there's quite a discussion going on in the Whisky industry if temperature controlled warehousing affects the long term maturation of whisky.

Most 'traditionalists' of course (me included) think it's a bad thing, since the ups and downs in temperature makes the casks 'breathe' - the pores of the wood expand/pull together and with the releasing flavour to the whisky. This is very important since around 70% of taste in a whisky comes from the oak cask.

In American Whiskey (Bourbons/Ryes - note the spelling difference here) only fresh oak casks are used and whiskey here is actually know to rise in alc.vol% during maturation in the South US - mainly Kentucky. This ofcourse the because the spirit stored reaches such high temperatures, that the water evaporates faster than the spirit!! It's even know to give off a hissing from the casks matured all the way up just below the tin roof of the warehouse! Imagine that!

Anyway, enough rabling about this other hobby of mine - there are other forums for that, than this

Cheers,
Claus

Glenn's on the right path...prior to active-cooling in the Douro casks stored up river were subject to temperature variations throughout the year. In the summer, it gets pretty darn hot as Glenn mentioned. So as the wine was exposed to the heat it would take on a unique baked note, the longer it was stored there the more pronounced it could be. It's pretty much a thing of the past now that most producers have active cooling and humidity controlled cellars. Although, there are some that still store their colheita barrels like this on purpose.