The Bishop of Norwich is an awfully nice fellow, but he never
remembers to pass the Port.

Port Wine goes back a long way, and Douro, the region in Portugal that
produces it, is the third oldest protected wine region in the world. The
?General Company of Viticulture of the Upper Douro’
was established in 1756, with the purpose of ensuring both the quality and the
price of the product.

It was the English who took Port Wine to their hearts, after
the ?Methuen Treaty’ in 1703 allowed merchants to import Portuguese wine.
However, ships often arrived in English ports with spoiled wine, so a process of
fortification was adopted which improved the longevity of the wine. This was a
time when England was at war
with France,
so an alternative to French wine had to be sought, and the habit of drinking
Port Wine developed into a tradition which has lasted through the years. Some
of the most famous shippers are still in existence today; amongst the most well
known are Sandeman, Cockburn, Osborne and Croft.

The partaking of Port is not merely a case of ?having a
drink’. There are rules and rituals to follow if you want to do it properly. It
was, and probably still is, a custom in the British Navy to pass the wine port
to port. The host should fill the glass of the person sitting to their right,
and then pass the bottle to their left. The bottle goes all around the table
until everyone has Port in their glass. Of course, there is always the problem
of the bottle becoming stuck by a certain person, but it is bad practice to
directly ask for the Port. The correct procedure is to say to the person who is
delaying the movement of the bottle ?Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?’
Usually, reminding the culprit of the mean Bishop does the trick, but if the
person is not au fait with the etiquette of Port drinking, and simply says no,
you would then have to add ?he’s an awfully nice fellow, but he never remembers
to pass the Port.’

An answer to this perennial problem is to use a Hoggett Decanter.
Its rounded bottom makes it impossible to stand on the table, and the only way
to let go of it, is to return it to the host, who will rest it in the purpose
made stand known as ?The Hoggett’. It is also an English tradition to remain at
the dining table until the whole bottle has been emptied. All this tradition
and ritual almost never came to be, because grape mildew came close to wiping
out the vineyards of the Douro. The crisis
became so bad that root stock had to be imported from America to
revive the flagging region.

Port isn’t simply Port. There are Tawny Ports that are made
from red grapes and aged in wooden barrels and take on a golden-brown colour.
These Ports are often used as a dessert wine.

Pink
Port is a fairly new
conception. The same grapes are used as in the production of Tawny and Ruby
Ports, but its lesser exposure to grape skins help to develop the sought after
pink colour. It tastes fruitier and lighter than its cousins and is normally
served chilled.

White Port is
produced from whitegrapes. This versatile option can be used as the
basis of a cocktail, or will stand alone as a quality drink ranging from dry to
very sweet.  

Late Bottled
Vintage Port
is wine that was originally earmarked as vintage, but for one reason or another
remains in the barrel for longer than was anticipated. They are bottled between
four and six years after the vintage. The term ?Late Bottled Vintage’ was first
coined in 1969 by Taylor, Fladgate and Yeatman, who used this name after the
bottling in that year of the 1965 vintage. These Ports tend to be lighter than
a vintage, with bottles since 2002 carrying the words ?Bottle Matured’.

Vintage Port, although being the wine that Portugal is
most proud of, only accounts for two percent of production. In the Douro region, not every year is declared a vintage. Only
when conditions are at their most favourable can the seal of approval be given
to the wine , and then only in the spring of the second year following the
harvest. The decision is made by each individual Port house or shipper. 

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