Dr. Vinny's Port Primer

[Roy Hersh]

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/44198

What do you think of this article and its accuracy?

[Glenn E.]

It seems like a good primer for those who know little about Port. I do wish that he would have called out Colheitas separately in his rundown of the types of Port, and that he would have mentioned both Tawny and Ruby as "basic" types, but for its stated purpose I think he did a good job.

[Eric Menchen]

Pretty good for a primer. If I wanted to be a geek (which I tend to do):

• I'd say the history of Port dates back earlier than the 17th century, to at least when Portuguese fishing boats started fishing off the English coast. 1300s was that? Something like that.
• "The spirits kill the yeast." It might kill some of the yeast, but I really think it just shuts them down. Yeast can be pretty resilient. I think if you took the fortified must and diluted it back to a low alcohol level, the yeast would probably start up again.
• "Touriga Francesa" This name is out of favor these days, isn't it?
• And the explanation of tawny with indication of age is perhaps an over-simplification, as is the answer to the question about how long a bottle will last after being opened.

Sorry for the nitpicks. You can tune these out if you want, or if you're a geek like me, we can deabte.

[Derek T.]

I think the article is fine for what it is. The only bit that confused me was:

But before the fermentation is finished, while strains of yeast are converting grape sugars to alcohol, distilled spirits (generally in the form of grape brandy) are added to the must

The inclusion of the word "generally" implies that fortification with something other than "grape brandy" is permissable. Which it isn't.

[Andy Velebil]

I think the article is fine for what it is. The only bit that confused me was:

But before the fermentation is finished, while strains of yeast are converting grape sugars to alcohol, distilled spirits (generally in the form of grape brandy) are added to the must

The inclusion of the word "generally" implies that fortification with something other than "grape brandy" is permissable. Which it isn't.

The article was written with an eye to someone with little to no knowledge of Port, so in that respect it was one of the better I've seen....except for what Derek pointed out. That had me scratching my head as well. What else would they use, Tequila

[Glenn E.]

I think the article is fine for what it is. The only bit that confused me was:

But before the fermentation is finished, while strains of yeast are converting grape sugars to alcohol, distilled spirits (generally in the form of grape brandy) are added to the must

The inclusion of the word "generally" implies that fortification with something other than "grape brandy" is permissable. Which it isn't.

But it has happened before, so "generally" applied across history is accurate.