Stage 4
Other Styles of Wine
Port & Sherry

Sherry and Port are both wines that have been fortified but are made by different methods and different grape varieties. Port is from Portugal and Sherry is from Spain.

The Port Method - grape spirit is added to interrupt the fermentation before all the sugar has turned into alcohol.

Sherry Method - firstly a dry wine is made and then the wine is fortified using grape spirit.

Port Styles

Ruby Port is inexpensive and non-vintage. It is aged for 3 years before bottling and is simple and fruity.

Reserve Ruby is made from better quality wine than Ruby Port. It is much more intense and has complex fruit flavours. It is aged in cask for 5 years, which softens and integrates the alcohol.

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) is similar to Reserve Ruby except the grapes all come from same vintage. The wine is bottled once it has aged between 4 - 6 years. Most do not need decanting but those labelled tradition style LBV will have a deposit and will need to be decanted in order to remove it before drinking. These wines have intense red and black fruit flavours such as Cherry, plum, blackberry, hints of spice - cloves and pepper. They are sweet with high alcohol, low tannins and medium to low acidity.

Vintage Port is made by the best vineyards and is only made in the best years. The wine is bottled un-filtered after short time in oak casks and has high tannins and flavours and benefit from ageing in bottle. The flavours evolve into cooked fruit, animal and vegetal notes - prune, leather and coffee. After being aged they will have a large deposit and need decanting.

Tawny Port is often inexpensive and is a blend of Ruby and White Port and is light in style.

Reserve Tawny is made by aging the wine for at least 7 years in oak to break down the intense fruit flavours. It oxidises and kernel flavours develop such as walnut, coffee, chocolate and caramel and the colour fades to tawny. The best are the Tawny with an indication of age labelled as 10 - 20 - 30 - or over 40 years old. This is an average age and not an exact one. There should be no need to decant these wines but they should be drank close to bottling date on label and are excellent when chilled.

Sherry Styles

There are two families of Sherry - the Fino family and the Oloroso Family and all are made using the solera system.

Solera System - this is a system for ageing the wines and a method of fractional blending in which old wine is constantly refreshed with younger wine. The wines are put into barrels that are arranged in layers with the oldest wines in the bottom row and the youngest wines in the top row. Wine for bottling is removed from the bottom row and the wine cascades down to replace it.

Fino Family

These wines are dry and are fortified to a lower degree than the Oloroso family.

Fino is a dry, pale, white wine, which has been fortified to around 15% abv and is aged using the solera system. In the solera system it develops a film of yeast on the surface, which is called flor, and this protects the wine from oxidising and imbibes it with a bready taste. The wine is dry with flavours of bread, yeast, citrus and almonds and should be consumed chilled. These wines once bottled are not intended for ageing and should be consumed as soon as possible after purchase. Once it is opened the bottle should be kept in the fridge and wine should be drank up within one week.

Manzanilla is a Fino sherry that has aged in the Solera system in the coastal town of Sanlucar de Barrameda.

Pale Cream is a Fino sweetened with concentrated grape juice.

Amontillado is an aged Fino or Manzanilla, which has lost the protection of the flor and therefore has an oxidised flavour.

Oloroso Family

These wines and are fortified to a higher degree than the Fino family and they can be dry or sweet.

Oloroso begins life as a dry white wine, which is then fortified to 18%. This does not allow any flor to grow and the wine has no protection so is attacked by oxygen throughout the aging period. This produces a wine that is deep brown, full bodied and with high alcohol. It has intense kernel & animal flavours.

Oloroso Dulce is a dry Oloroso sweetened with wine made from dried Pedro Ximenez - PX grapes. These grapes produce an intensely sweet wine, which gives the Oloroso Dulce flavours of Figs, prunes, raisins and sultanas. The wine is full bodied and syrupy.

Remember Sherry is a wine...

Here is a guide as to how long you can store these wines and how soon they should be consumed once the bottle has been opened.