Pass the Port Trivia Quiz

Answer: Portugal

The city of Porto lies on the mouth of the Douro River and the vineyards are in the Duoro Valley region of Portugal. Merchants have spent centuries shipping port wine from Porto to England. While some port-style wines are now made in other countries, authentic ports are marked with "Porto" on the label.

Answer: Stomping with bare feet

Some vintners still use the traditional method of bare-foot stomping in large tanks, made of stone or cement, called lagares. Vintners that have modernized use a mechanical device designed like the human foot to simulate treading.

Answer: A distilled spirit is added

Henry II's marriage to France's Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, gave the English easy access to French wines. They developed a taste for French claret but when the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) broke out between the two countries, England's source of Bordeaux reds dried up.

While traveling the Duoro River in Portugal, two Englishmen discovered a monastery making fortified wine. Once trade agreements were established after the 1703 signing of the Treaty of Methuen, England had its substitute for the Bordeaux wines. Without the fortification, the fragile wines would spoil on the voyage to England.

Answer: Brandy

Brandy, itself made from distilling wine, is added after the fermentation process begins when the port reaches an alcohol level of about 7%. Adding the brandy stops the fermentation process, leaving more sugar that isn't lost to fermentation. This is why ports are generally sweeter than other wines. Also, because of the brandy, port wines usually have a higher alcohol content than other wines.

Answer: From a decanter

The port shouldn't even be opened until all of the sediment has settled to the bottom of the bottle. The goal then is to keep the bottle as still as possible while opening to avoid stirring up the sediment. If decanted (poured from the bottle to a decanter) properly, the sediment remains in the bottle and the wine in the decanter is free of residue and ready to be served.

There is a specialized tool called "port tongs" that can be used to heat up and cleanly break the neck of the bottle rather than uncorking it.

Answer: Varieties of port grapes

There are at least 100 varieties of port grapes in the Duoro Valley region of Portugal. Port is most commonly a dessert wine not only because of its sweetness, but also because of the flavor notes of the grapes. For example, Touriga Nacional adds blueberry and vanilla notes and Touriga Franca adds raspberry and cinnamon notes.

Other flavor notes that can be found in ports are chocolate, nuts, blackberry, and even caramel.

Answer: False

Although red, or ruby, is the most common variety, ports can also be white, rose, and there's even a variety known as tawny. A tawny port will have flavor notes of nuts and caramel. Rose ports are a relatively new type of port with flavor notes of strawberry, caramel, and violets.

Answer: True

When the trade of port began with England, it was shipped in casks and then bottled in England. Port companies were known as 'shippers' for this very reason. Today, however, all authentic Port must be bottled in Portugal by law.

Answer: True

Although port wines only date back to the 17th-18th centuries, landholders have been producing wines in the Duoro region for as far back as 2000 years. The region was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2001. The human impact on the region after millenia of viticulture has resulted in it becoming an exceptional example of all that European viticulture incorporates.

Answer: cost of fertilizer

The Instituto dos Vinhos do Duoro Porto (or IVDP) is the regulating body for the production of Port in the Duoro Valley's three regions and is the organization that assigns the A-F classifications. Ultimately the classifications are the basis upon which the IVDP determines how much port wine may be produced - the vintners with the highest 'grades' receive a larger allotment for how much of their harvest can be used for port wines. Grapes not used for port wines are used to produce unfortified wines.

The regulating system serves multiple purposes, among which are ensuring that all of the 33,000+ vintners in the Duoro Valley are able to make a living, as well as making sure there isn't a glut of port on the market thus artificially maintaining high prices.