- Welcome to Porto. Would you look at that view? The pastel buildings along the riverbank, Rabelos ferrying tourists downstream, and the smell of Francesinhas filling the streets. Porto is the city that lends its name to one of the most imPortant wines ever to exist, Port. You might not know it, but Port changed the way the planet thinks about wine. It's historic. Port was one of the first non-perishable wines in existence. It's diverse. Port comes in over a dozen styles. It's age worthy. You can lay a Port down for decades. It's versatile. Port can be had with meals, cigars, with dessert, as dessert, as an aperitif, in cocktails, for special occasions, or for an ordinary Tuesday night. Most importantly, and what some people forget, it's simply a wine. A wine that I plan on enjoying a lot during my time here. Welcome to Porto and welcome to V is for Vino. Welcome to downtown Porto. It's the second largest city in Portugal and the heart of Port wine. Known as Oporto in Portuguese, this city lends its name to the country in Portugal and its signature wine, Port. Up until the last decade or so, Porto remains largely undiscovered by US tourists though, for the life me, I have no idea why. For one, the architecture rivals any European destination. Towering cathedrals, giant plazas with 500 year old churches, you also get expansive parks, modern museums, and bridges designed by the same engineer as the Eiffel Tower. Even the train station is a work of art. But the lifeblood of this city, without question is the Douro River. To understand this region, you have to start with the Douro River. The river begins all the way in the center of Spain and spans 557 miles to the Atlantic ocean. It travels through what is called the Douro Valley, which is the wine region for Port. You see the grapes and wine used for Port aren't actually made in Porto. They're made in the Douro valley. The finished wine is then transported down river to be stored and aged in the cellars in the area south of downtown Porto called Vila Nova de Gaia. This is Vila Nova de Gaia, right across the river from where we just were. For hundreds of years before trucks took over barrels of Port were transPorted from the Douro Valley on traditional flat bottomed boats called Rabelos. The boats unloaded here where the barrels would then head to the various Port lodges to be aged. Here behind me there's more than 60 lodges. Some of the names you'd probably recognize. Once the wine was aged, bottled, and ready to go, the boats came back into play. You see the history of Port wine stems as much from necessity as it does from pleasure. Nowadays, we often take for granted planes and trucks and forget that at one time the best and sometimes only method of long distance transport was boats. The British have long had a taste for fine wine. However, it was too cold to grow grapes in Britain. So for centuries, they imported wine from the French. But in the 17th century, Britain and France started squabbling, which like most squabbles in history, led to wars and trade embargoes. Eager to find a replacement for their steady flow of wine, the British looked to Portugal, who they were already trading dried fish, wool, and other goods with via boat, but there was a problem. Yes, the boat could make it from Portugal to Britain, but the wine, not so much. Winemaking back then, wasn't like how it is today. Wines were perishable and had a very short shelf life. Hard to imagine nowadays, but the wines that were transported by boat ended up spoiling during the long journey to Britain. In response, shippers started adding brandy to the casks of wine to help preserve it for long trips. And just like that, their tradition of Port was born. Today neutral brandy is still added to Port wine, just like in the 1700s, though, instead of being added after the wine is complete, the Brandy is now added during the fermentation process. The wine was a hit in Britain and eventually the British started taking over its aging and exporting processes. This is why many of Portugal's Port houses have British sounding names. By the mid 18th century, Port's popularity had grown and had a reputation to uphold. Marquis of Pombal, the man who essentially ruled the Portuguese empire at the time, decided to see to it that Port line was always up-to-snuff. He created the first demarcated, or regulated, wine region in the world in 1756, far before DOCs or AOCs in Italy and France. He established a governing body that regulated production techniques, geography, and standards for Port wine that helped cement in traditions. In the century since Port has fallen in and out of and back into fashion, but it'll always stand as one of the most historic, iconic wines in the world. Of all the logos in the wine world, I don't think there is one quite as recognizable as Sandeman. The Don, as he is called, is a brooding silhouette. The Spanish hat, the Portuguese students Cape, the glass of Port in hand. It makes me wanna cozy up with a glass of Ruby and a good mystery novel on a stormy night. But luckily for me, there was plenty of Port to be had and sunny weather when I went to meet George Sandeman, the seventh generation of his family's business at the house that bears his name. George in the George. - [George] In the George. - [Vince] George in the George. - Not named-- - George on the wall. - [George] Exactly, George on the wall. - [Vince] Oh, here come cocktails. - It's a 10 year old Tawny with vodka. - Okay. - Spice, walnuts. - [Vince] Walnuts on the rim. - That is very original. - That is lovely. You know, there's this trend now to use Ports as the sweetener in, you know, the sweetening ingredient in cocktails, but it's not a new thing. - The first mentions in written terms is Jerry Thomas. And that's one of the reasons when we started our whole adventure going into cocktails and Porting cocktails, besides believing the Port is a wonderful wine to be in a cocktail, but we like to have some historical background to it. And that's where we found a lot of it. - We enjoyed our first course, which was alheira, a smoke sausage wrapped in cabbage leaf served over a multi grain porridge. The smokey flavor contrasted the sweet nuttiness of the cocktail beautifully. We are here in what is essentially like a Sandeman campus, which I think is really fun. This, The George, the restaurant, there's a terrace where you can just get cocktails and there's this cool boxcar like old train cars doing cocktails. There's obviously the cellars and the tasting room that you can visit. And then there's like a hotel, hostel. - These were the original, I mean the, the original Sandeman buildings. Sandeman came in and took over the cellars here in 1811 because of the location right next to the river. Essentially these were offices. You know, the question was, how do you take this building and keep it alive? The main offices, including where I used to work for a while is now a lovely suite. - Okay. - Which looks out onto the river. Some of the inner offices were all converted into a hostile environment where you have, these bunk beds in the shape of casks. - [Vince] Oh cool. - So it's quite nice and very nicely done. It's run by some really, really professional, good people. One of the great advantages that there is with Port is you have this diversity of flavors. - Well, it's a versatile wine in the sense that, okay, you have the three main types; White, Tawny, Ruby. Then within that, you have all your subcategories. Then within that, you can have it as in a cocktail. You can have it with dessert, but you can also have it, I feel like Port doesn't necessarily need to be relegated to dessert, no? - You can drink a White, a chilled White Port with a starter. Classic is Ruby Port, a chilled Ruby Port, with chocolate mousse. Here, we're gonna have another experience. - I mean, yeah. I've had about a hundred of these since I've got here. This is White Port and tonic, cheers. - White Port and tonic. - Which is my new favorite cocktail, low alcohol cocktail. The sweetness of the White Port plays really well with kind of that bitter tonic water. It's really, really great. And this is a very popular drink here. - It's a very popular drink, as you said, I mean, many people think of Port as being one thing. I mean, you know, a lot of people think of Port as being a sort of full body Ruby wine, which you drink at the end of a meal and probably around the holiday time and probably when your mother-in-law is over, you know, and she probably likes it better than you do cause it's served warm. - Well no offense but sometimes its seen as an old English thing, right? The older English generation. - But when you take it out of that context and you show people that served chilled, served in a large glass, like a wine, served with food on ice with a slice of orange, makes a really nice aperitif. - White Port and tonics are so easy to make. It's gonna be your summer go-to. I promise. Course two was seared thin cut rib eye and migas, a classic Portuguese dish of leftover bread, moistened and mixed with sausage and vegetables. It's very similar to stuffing. And it's one of my favorite Portuguese comfort foods. - Sandeman was founded by George Sandeman, borrowed some money from his father, bought wines and started selling them and made a successful business out there. Company just sort of grew and became a very well established shipper of Port. And then in the 1920s, Sandeman was being run by Walter Sandeman. And I mean, in those days, there were no marketing agencies, right? There were printers and the printers hired artists to develop art, which they could take around somebody say, wouldn't this be wonderful for you to promote your product with? And he bought this poster for advertising, which later on became the symbol of Sandeman. To me, the really stunning move was that three years or four years later, they decided to take this symbol and put it on the label. That probably was one of the great moves. - And it's so iconic. I mean, there is, I can't, in the wine world, not just in Port, I don't know if there's a more iconic image than the Don. - I can't say there is. - [Vince] Yeah. The last drink was from my favorite family of cocktails, a fizz. Egg whites, lemon, Sandeman Founders Reserve, Ruby Port, and violet syrup served with a chocolate lava cake. - Was this relatively easy to make? - No, it's a giant pain. To do it properly, you have to shake until your arm falls off. Welcome to the most important part of this episode. What is Port? The answer's a bit long, but hang with me. The information is worth it. Now there's always been some confusion about Port. So let's get one thing clear right off the bat. It's just wine. It's not a liquor a spirit like some people believe. Port is simply made from grapes, specifically, a blend of grapes. There are about 110 different grapes allowed in Port, but in practice 30 are most common and six in particular are almost always used. The process starts with regular must, or unfermented grape juice, nothing new here yet. From there, we'll start to see the difference between Port and other wines. Port is a fortified wine, which means a clear neutral spirit. In this case, a 77% alcohol brandy is added mid-fermentation making about a quarter of our final product brandy, to three quarters wine. And this is what sets Port apart from other wines. When the Brandy's added, it raises the overall alcohol to 20% and kills the yeast. Winemakers do this when the yeast has eaten and converted only about half of the grape sugar to alcohol and thus leaves the other half in the wine. This is why Port is sweet. And I don't say that lightly, most Port has about a hundred grams per liter of sugar, which puts it deliciously on par with Coca-Cola. So now at this point, we have a sweet 20% alcohol fortified wine, but the process doesn't stop there. Our wine now approaches a fork in the road before it can reach its final destination, it's bottle. White, Tawny, or Ruby? Let's start simple. White Port is the only Port made from white grapes. And the only Port that is sometimes made dry. It's either standard White Port or reserve, which has been aged in oak for seven years. These wines have flavors of apricot, roasted nuts, citrus, honey, and are great on their own or with tonic or soda as an aperitif. They're fun, fresh, and easy drinking. Next we have Tawny Port. Tawny Ports are aged in small barrels. So the wine is exposed to oxygen from the breathable oak and has a lot of juice to wood contact. You can even see it in the color. Hence its name, Tawny. The wood and oxygen give Tawny a signature nuttiness and oak presence, flavors like dried fruit, coffee, caramel, toffee, cinnamon, almond, and toast are all common. From there we have our subcategories of Tawny Port, and yeah, there's a bunch. First up, regular Tawny aged two years. Next is reserve aged six years. Then you have what's called aged Tawnys, 10 year, 20 year, 30 year and 40 year. I mean, how crazy, right? How often can you drink a wine that's older than you or close to your age anyway, at an affordable price? Also note that all these are the average age of the wine. I say average because most of these wines are blends of different vintages or non vintage. The longer Tawny wine ages, the more of those oxidative properties it takes on. They get smoother, more nutty, and take on flavors like butterscotch and vanilla. The last subcategory is Colheita Port, which is single vintage Tawny. It's usually very high quality and aged at least seven years in barrel, but sometimes up to 50 before release. Easiest thing to remember about Tawny Ports, they can all be drunk when you purchase them. Just like White Ports, Tawny has been aged for you by the producer, and won't really benefit from more aging. Okay. We're almost there. This brings us to where things get interesting. The boss level of Ports, if you will, Ruby. While Tawny Ports remind us of brown things, caramel and nuts, Ruby Port reminds us more of fruit. This is because they're made from red grapes and aged in large oak barrels that impart very little oxygen or oak flavors, but it's in the subcategories where things get really exciting. Basic Ruby Port is the most popular style of Port made. And has flavors like blackberry, raspberry, cinnamon, and chocolate. Reserve Ruby, sometimes called vintage character, special, or finest has five years of oak aging is full bodied and richer than standard Ruby. And is one of the best values in Port wine. Both Ruby and Ruby reserve are non vintage. So you're drinking these right at release. Now let's talk vintages. This only applies to certain Tawnies and Rubies. A vintage year in the land of Port is a really big deal. It's only declared by a producer about three to four times a decade. When the producer decides it was an exceptional year. Vintage Ports are made differently. Besides the grapes being from just a single vintage, they spend only about two to three years in oak are bottled and then released immediately. Then you the consumer, or the retailer, or the restaurant, are expected to age them in the bottle for 20 to 40 years until they're in their prime and ready to drink. But good things come to those who wait, this is the height of Port wine, rich full bodied, integrated tannins, licorice, plums, bramble, toffee, violets, tar, tea, spiced fruit cake. These wines are exceedingly complex. And while they aren't quite as affordable as the other styles, they're still relatively accessible. 20 year old vintage Ports can be had starting around $100. Finally, there's one last style, LBV or Late Bottle Vintage. These are vintage Ports made in years that aren't officially declared vintage years and are aged longer and bottled later than vintage Ports. Hence late bottle vintage. They're top quality wines, ready to drink on release and a good approximation of vintage Port, but at a lower price. You still with me? I know it was a lot, but it's worth demystifying a wine as special as Port. If you're still scratching your head, try drinking a glass or two yourself to help bring it all into focus. Hey, Vino fans. I want to talk to you about signing up for Vino VIP. And since I don't wanna bother you with a ton of commercials while you're trying to watch the show, I'm gonna put all the cliche marketing angles into just this one, here we go. I know we come off as a big production, but the reality is the entire operation is myself and a few other part-time employees. We're not affiliated with a studio or TV channel. We really wanna keep the show going, but literally can't do it without your help. So please, if the show has entertained you, helped you learn or pass a wine exam. 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There are lots of places that oak age their wine, but Porto may be the only place in the world where the cellar defines the wine in both style and tradition. So George took me to the cellar to help me better understand. - It starts off quite basic. So when you talk about Ruby Ports, they spend a small time in the cellar because you want to keep them big and fruity. So what we age in these cellars here, are basically Tawny Ports. - Okay. - And Tawny Ports need a lot of oxidation. And this is one of the few occasions when oxidation is actually a good thing in wine, because most people talk about, you know, oxidation being bad. Here these casks really are recipients, which allow the wine to breath. And that allows the wine to evolve from the big red, young Ports, into these sort of wonderful, delicate Tawny Ports with sort of lovely, you know, amber colors, gold colors. These cellars are particularly important. I'd say the micro climate they live in. - Yes, it's humid. - It's a little bit humid. - [Vince] It's humid in here. - And being right close to the river means that even in the, in the hottest of summer days, the wine doesn't heat up. So we have a very stable temperature. It means the oxidation is slow. It's gradual and the flavors don't burn. - Okay. - You don't want to cook the wine. - We don't wanna cook that. - We're not making Madeira, we're making Port. - [George] Making Port. Exactly. - But it is funny what you mentioned about oxygen, which is essentially that oxygen is the enemy until it's not, right? It's all about controlling it. The Rubies will, they they'll spend a little time in barrel, right? - Oh yes. So the young Rubies will spend some time in like this big oak that we see, we see on our left hand side here, and these vats essentially allow some oxygen to get in, but really maintain what we want in Rubies, which is the big, fresh plummy fruity characteristics. Those wines, by the way, I mean, if you take a, a vintage Port or late bottle vintage and age it in bottle, the oxygen also gets in cause of the cork allows oxygen in. And they also evolved and eventually got the color of a 30 year old Tawny. - It's interesting what you mentioned about location. Was it chosen because of the temperature or was it chosen based on necessity 'cause of the river? - It's a question of the, what came first, the chicken or the egg? But in this case it was more necessity being here and having your barrels rolled across basically a short distance into here was much less expensive than being up on the hill. - [Vince] Yeah, sure, sure. - Because then you'd have to have an ox car take your barrel up, but there was another thing. Why is all the Port on this side of the river and not on the other side of the river? That all has to do with taxes. - Okay. - It was taxes and the church. I mean, and God bless them both. So the Bishop of Porto had the right to tax all products, all wines, all merchandise that would come through Oporto. So the shippers would have their businesses on the other side, but their warehouses here, because this wasn't within his parish. - But I did wonder about that. I said, okay, why is it a different city? Even though it's essentially right across the river. Really excited to get in. Do you want to go taste some of the wines? - Oh, that'd be, it's always a good thing. Talking is wonderful, but tasting is better. - Yeah, let's do it. First thing I notice is we have lined up glassware, not what I sometimes think of as Port glasses. - Port glasses. - Yeah. - Today we drink it like wine because it is wine. So a large glass allows you not only to appreciate the color, which is very beautiful, but also the aroma. And then the taste, the first one is founders reserve. And this is a Reserve Ruby Port. It's about five years old. You'll see it's very red in color, primary characteristics that you're looking for in Port. A lot of fruit, a lot of plums, a lot of aroma. And I dunno if you notice, this is the tie in the heritage of Sandeman with art tied in with two Portuguese artists here and recyclable canisters. Anyway, to the wine. - Let's do it. Interesting that I think all these, you have a little bit chilled. - What I find when you, when it's chilled like this is you get the fruit aromas and you don't get the spirit. - Okay. Yeah, the alcohol. - The alcohol. There's, I think, a lovely fruit aroma. - Lovely fruit I do get some spice. I get some-- - Nice spice, yeah. - Some pepper spice. And then on the pallet, we were very primary. That's, you know, it's a younger, younger wine, still have five years aged? But young for a Port, extracted ripe kind of fruit style. But that still has a freshness. - A lot of people think of Port as being sugary and sweet. And if it is, it's not good Port. - Yeah, you like, you're looking for that freshness to balance it out. - [George] Exactly. - And what that sugar does do is it gives that length on finish and that warming effect. If it's done properly, it doesn't come off as sweet, so much as length. - Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And clean. And then, and then what happens is you say, hmm, that tastes very good, let me taste it again. Yeah. Okay. So, we going to the second wine here, these vintage Ports are the, the wines that are considered the best, if you want, of the best. So what happens is the house decides I've got a vintage. I want to declare it as a vintage and they take it to the Port Wine Institute, which is the governing authority and they're independent panel will taste it and say, yes, this qualifies. - If you made me say this is similar to something, it kind of reminds me at least the nose of it, of like a meaty Syrah. - At this age, I mean, this is a 2018. I mean, this is a very young Port. It's a very young vintage Port. You'd be looking at aging this for, you know, 15 to 20 years without much of a problem. - Yeah. Yeah. And it, I mean, it's great right now. I have no problem drinking it today. - It's delicious. - But I do understand what you're saying, that this is the kind of wine that would have a lot of wonderful evolution in 15 to 20 years. - Unfortunately, as my, as I've experienced, time flies a lot faster than you think. So you can put down a 2018 and all of a sudden it's like, wow. - Oh my God. - I could drink it now. So we're gonna change up the style, now. Now we go into the Tawny style. And here, here you see it perfectly. Cause I mean, you have one wine, which is definitely Ruby and another wine, which is losing that Ruby character and starting to develop yellows and golds and amber. - And what's interesting about this because this is a, a very young Tawny. It really is kind of the next level of maybe our really young Ruby, right? It's not so far off from it. - And I like this one is for want something a little bit more mellow. A little bit more laid back. - Mellow is a great way to describe this. - I gotta tell you this on ice-- - On ice? - Yeah. With a little slice of orange. - [Vince] In the summer. - In the summertime. - Confusing is I think for a lot of consumers is when do you open these? Will they age? Should I age them? - Normally, what has this T top or bar stopper is something that is going to be used earlier. So it's bottled for drinking. - [Vince] For immediate consumption. - Yeah. For immediate consumption. Whereas something that has a driven cork in it, the long cork in it is something that you can lay down and keep for a period of time. The general guideline that is that if you're drinking a Ruby Port, you can keep them open and drink them for about a month. When you're talking about the Tawny Ports, you have a bottle of 20 or 30 year old Tawny open for, for 60 days. - Oh, the Tawnies can go longer? - Longer because they're wines that have been exposed to oxygen. - Oxygen. Interesting. - So here, I mean, here, you really see the evolution, not only of the color, but also the aroma, caramel and spice and vanilla and almonds. - What's really lovely about this is on the, on the pallet. Those really burst through that caramel kind of caramelized orange peel, completely different from kind of what we've tasted before. And that's because you're seeing - that's about 20 years of difference, right? So this is what you're getting when you start to really put some age on it. - Okay. The last one and I have the stretch right over here, to get the 30 year old Tawny. - We say it, say it very casually. We're having the 20 versus the 30. What were you doing 10 years ago? It really is a big difference. And so it takes a lot of commitment from your, from your producer. - This isn't the question of saying, well, I'm gonna keep this wine for 20 years and it'll become this wine and this wine for 10 years and it'll become that wine. The styles are completely unique. So the 20 year old may come off as being a little bit fresher. The 30 year old is a little bit more intense. - The finish on this is so tremendously long. I get a lot of fig character, all those things that we loved about this one, but just kind of a little heightened. - It's more intense. It's more compact. Strangely enough, there are times when I find it overwhelming to me, this is a wine that you could sit and drink, you know, and maybe have some Roquefort cheese with, or something like this. This is a wine that you almost like going like, God, this is, let me think here, let me, you know, let me contemplate, let me-- - I love this. I love that there's so many different styles for whatever the occasion might be. And we've only touched on some of them here. This is a tremendous kind of intro to me for Ports. So thank you so much. - Interesting we both went for the 30 on that one. - Did you guys know that on our website, we have the places we visited listed on each episode's page, the wines we drank available for sale, and our VIP section with bonus videos? I just thought I'd let you know. Nova de Gaia may be where the wines are cellared, aged, and bottled, but that's only half the story. The other half lies about an hour inland along the river. The Douro valley is where the grapes are actually grown and later made into the wine that becomes Port. The history of much of this land is tied to a single woman, deemed a visionary of her time. Antonia Adelaide Ferreira was an entrepreneur and pioneer for this region in the 1800s and was instrumental in helping it become what it is today. Luis Sottomayor, winemaker for Ferreira Port, the brand that carries her name, tells me more. I'm so excited to try these wines. You know, Ferreira was explained to me as the people's Port. One of the oldest brands, but most importantly, I think it's always been Portuguese owned. You know, so many ended up being, being British owned at some point, or at least aged and bottled, but this has always been kind of the Portuguese people's Port. So... - And, and when with the Portuguese style, all the other Port wine companies, they belong for people who came here to buy the wine, to sold wine. - Okay. - But the Ferreira family, they are the first farmers to really try it, their own grapes and sold the wines. - I wanna talk a little bit about how this region came to be Dona Antonia, give me her story. - So Dona Antonia, she's taking charge the the company. So when she dies is one of biggest companies in Portugal. - What did she do during the 50 years or so that she owned the company that really helped, you know, turn it into what it is today? - She developed a lot, the company, not only the company, but also the, the region. For example, during the phylloxera problems, she has a lot of properties in Douro and she gives property to the government to do there, all the works, to try to, fight against that, that disease. Where you are now is Douro Superior. Douro Superior, in that moment, doesn't belongs to the Douro region. But she acquired some lands in that area because she, she feels they will be very important in the development of the region. She is one of the first planting vineyards in that area, which is nowadays is something beautiful. And is from where they comes, our better Douro wine. - [Vince] The slope is so steep here. - Douro's a huge wine region. And so in a so big region that we have different geographies in that area. Where we are, geography are much more soft, for example, than in Cima Corgo, in Cima Corgo the, the Hills are much more aggressive than here. Which much-- - More aggressive than here? - Yes. - Here's pretty aggressive. - Yes, yes, yes, yes. - So how do you decide what makes a classic vintage year versus when you're gonna do a "Quinta" vintage? - In my opinion, we have much better quality now than, than 30 years ago. Our LBVs now, they could be vintage at 30 years ago or 20 or 30 years. - Wow so you think the overall quality of Port has improved? - The quality improve, why? Because you understand much more the viticulture and you have much better technology. We only classify as wine as classic vintage when we feel we have the style of the company. Other years, we have beautiful wines. This is more a style of a property than a style of the company. That is the biggest difference between classic and single, single Quinta. The quality could be similar. But the style is different. - But the style is different. - Different. That is my biggest job during the harvest is walk, walking the vineyard, taste the grapes. And to know if the, when is the right moment to harvest the, the grapes. - Luis explained to me how he knows when the skin is developed, the different types of shift soils, how he blends low altitude and high altitude plots. You could just tell he had a lot of wisdom to share. And before we had to taste, he had a surprise for me. It was harvest and production time when I was in the Douro in September. And once Luis makes the call to pick the grapes, the process is fast and furious. See, grapes need to get quickly from vine to fermentation. It has to happen in the same day. The harvest process goes as such. Luis gives the command. The grapes are picked and put in buckets, then bigger buckets, then trucks. There's about 700 grapes in a bottle of wine. So you do the math of how many bunches have to be picked to facilitate even a small winery. The trucks take them to the production center. The fruit is then dumped into the destemmer, which does exactly what it sounds like. Separates the stems from the grapes. Next, the grapes are hand sorted to pick out any foreign bits like leaves or leftover stems. For most red wines, the grapes are then machine pressed, moved into tanks and allowed to ferment with the juice and skins. But this is Port wine. And the best Port wines are still stomped by foot in a process called pigeage in giant stone tubs called lagares. Sure, machines could be used, but producers will tell you that the action of your foot treading the grape is just hard enough to release the juice, but not so hard that you'll extract bitterness, something machines have trouble replicating. Plus it's good old-fashioned tradition, done in groups often to music. It reminds us of the combination of effort, joy, and teamwork that's required to make wine. Feeling the grapes between your toes, the hot and cool pockets that mark where fermentation has already begun. The effort it takes to lift your foot out of the must, which is more strenuous than you'd expect, trust me. It's like driving a stick shift in a world that's gone automatic. It's a nice reminder that while technology is great, there's something to getting your hands dirty- should I say feet dirty- and doing the work the same way it was done hundreds of years before you arrived. Luis And I decided to do our sampling of Ferriera Port back in the city of Porto. Little did I know I was in for one of the most special tastings of my life. I don't think I've been this excited for a tasting in a long time. I don't know as much about vintage Port as I would like. - I work here 32 years. Each day is like a start. - You're still learning? - A new, a new start. What we have here is a LBV late bottle vintage. It is a wine with the great relationship price, quality because is not expensive. - So this is a style that essentially spent a little extra time in oak versus a Vintage, right? - Yes and we age it more two years, two years more in oak. So when he goes to bottle is more drinkable than, than a Vintage. What we feel is the aromas of the grapes, some spicy. - I get, I get a lot of meat spice. - Some black, some red fruit. Now a Vintage. Single Quinta. This is '19 so is the youngest vintage. The vintage usually is declared two years after the, the harvest in these grapes. We still use man is doing the pigeage. The robo works very well, but doesn't have feelings. It can work 24 hours a day, never ask for more money. It never was tired, but if we want to go in direction of perfection, we must use men's doing that. It is a very hard job. - Yeah. It's a very hard job. They have to go many hours. - Yes. - And I didn't do it that long. - You stay there, stay there in inside half an hour. But thinking they must stay there three hours at least. - Oh my goodness. Think you said very, very young just bottled. - Very, very young, looking the color is still, it's dark. It is very intense. A lot, a lot, lot of spicy, very balsamic, some cigar. The wine prepare to live another years in bottle, but is drinkable. So now a classic vintage 2018. One of better years, which I have to opportunity to, to taste and to produce in all my life as a wine maker. Is beautiful to receive the 100 points. But the best medal I could receive is going in, in a restaurant, seeing the people drinking a bottle of our company. And when they finish them, ask for another. Quite fresh, fresh year. - This wine more than the others, coats the pallet. - Is like to eat a steak, a meat, to eat meat. - I was gonna say it's very spicy on the finish. - And is long and is powerful. - I'm very surprised all three of them now have had a really strong spice component. - I will never see how long that wine could live because I will part and wine will still be for the next generations. - What is beautiful is you do get a legacy in that sense. So what do we have? - So now I didn't say a old vintage because is three years youngest as me. And I think I'm not, I'm not old. It has been bottle same year as the man arrival to the moon. These previous wines, we have tasted, they are a young, young wines that doesn't have sediments in bottle. So what we must do is decant them. - Luis explained to me that the corks are replaced by hand every 25 to 30 years to keep the wine sound. But that doesn't stop them from being fragile. After removing the cork old wines like this are decanted, as they tend to have a lot of sediment. Then Luis rinses the bottle and funnels the decanted wine back in. - Look at, it's perfect. The color for a wine with 50, 55 years, complexity is amazing. - Oh my God. The fruit character goes into this dry fruit. - It is disappeared. And it starts to, what we called bouquet. Yeah. Bouquet. It's the aromas, which wine wins in, in bottle that happens after many years. But, but the complexity are, are wonderful. That wine, they start to have some aroma like pharmacy. Iodium. - It turned from a wine that - those young wines that are very rich and mouth coating to a very light. - Yes. - Easy drinking. - Easy. But at the same time, it stays in mouth for many-- - But the finish is so long, so warming. - And it's very, very spicy. - Yeah. Still spicy. And like you said, that's kind-- - The spicy, very spicy in mouth. I could drink that wine alone like that in, during the winter in a cool night near the fire. - Yeah. - Making that wine with conversation, eating some good cheese and drink that wine is the best we can have in life. - Speaking of the best you can have in life, Luis had one final surprise for me. - I have here something special to you. This is a 1966. We have here wine with more, 103 years that that. 1863. - Are you kidding? - Yes. Yes. I'm not kidding. - We're not gonna open this, are we? - Yes, it's true. It's true. - [Vince] That's right. A bottle of 1863 Ferriera Port. Nearly 160 years old. Before the world wars, before the Eiffel tower, blue jeans, and the light bulb were invented. A time when the US was at Civil War, only had 34 states, and the national Anthem had yet to be written. When we say wine is history in a bottle, it's rarely this literal. Even the bottle has a story. - This is a bottle made by hand. Looking that bottle, the neck is, is not in the vertical position. - Yeah. You can see kind of the divots. It's not perfect. - The bottle is something amazing to look at the color. Fantastic. Is a wine to thinking, to talk, to discuss. - The color is the thing that is, is absolutely blowing my mind. Just that beautiful amber gold. It looks like an aged aged white. It looks like an aged Chardonnay. Oh wow. This is the most over the top nose we've had all day. - They have honey. - That iodium even more pronounced. Right? That pharmacy I've never heard that. But that is, that is exactly what it is. It smells like a old pharmacy, crushed flowers. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. - You still be alive. - It, it has this character almost like a, a bourbon with these beautiful vanilla, caramel, honey, rich, rich, rich extracted. Amber honey. - Is a question of sensations. It's not only the quality of wine, it is the story. This history, which is behind him. Is a wine, not easy to describe, but only to say thanks to God, to let, to give us the possibility to taste a wine, a wine like that. - To be grateful for that and to be grateful for you for choosing to share this. I very much appreciate it. This is one of the most special moments of my life. - Been my pleasure. - Thank you so much. - Thank you very much. - One of the most inspiring parts of trying this wine was this, the bottle was not only still sound. It was incredible. With no modern farming technology, no benefit of the metering and the measuring and the science of modern wine making, the people of Ferriera in 1863, managed to make a wine that lasted 160 years. And Luis now makes wines that will outlive him by the same. As I shared the bottle with Luis, the Ferriera team and the crew, I reflected on the journey it had taken and the fortune I'd had. The generations who passed it down one to the next each saying, nah, don't open it yet. And I was the lucky man who someone looked at, Luis, luck, God, and said, now it's time. The first time I visited Portugal, I had no idea what kind of food to expect. I thought maybe it would be similar to Spanish cuisine, but I quickly found out it was unlike any other European cuisine I had. It's hearty and rustic and rich. Cured meats and smoked sausages, seafood, hardy vegetables and legumes, soups and stews. It uses lots of spices. Many of which come from Portugal's former colonies. Paprika, clove, and cumin. Chef Rui Paula wanted to take all of these amazing ingredients and spices from traditional Northern Portuguese cooking and make something contemporary out of it. What came from that was DOC, his acclaimed restaurant in the gorgeous Douro River Valley. - Beautiful view, huh? It's amazing spot. Yes? - Yeah. There's there's worse places to have a restaurant. I'll tell you. - Yes. It's all restaurants on the river, you see? - Oh, in the indoor too? All in the river. - [Rui] Yes. - Wow. - It's, it's not boat. It's a restaurant. - And what made you decide to open here? I mean, you could have opened in Lisbon. - I was born in Porto, but my family is the, this region. - Yeah. Your family's from here. - Yes. - [Vince] So this was where, this is where your heart is? - Yes. - Yeah. You are a two Michelin star chef now. What inspired you as a chef? What made you? - The, my family have a big house. My grandmother cook for many people. - Big, big dinners. - Yes. - And the flavors, the house, the smell. The, the business is my inspiration. - Yeah. So you wanted to take that experience and give people that same, you know, joy that you had as a kid? - Yes, yes. - [Vince] You guys, you have some dishes prepared for today. - Yes. - Yeah? Wanna go eat? - But it's a secret. - A secret? - Yes. - Now, but after you try. - Okay, good. You wanna do it? - Okay. Come on. - I had a feeling, the food in the Douro was gonna be just as good as the wines from here. That is lovely. And that is a Reserve White. - [Rui] Reserve-- - I mean, you look at it, you would look at it and you think, oh, it's a Tawny, but this is just an aged white. - [Rui] I hope you like the food. - I'm sure I will love-- - For me, the food is very important, huh? - Yeah. Wines is important, but the food. - Did I mention Chef Paula really wants you to visit Portugal? - You have Reserve Port in Portugal, Portugal is a beautiful country and 14 wine region. Wine! 14! Quality price to wines. Beautiful. - I love how, like I said, you are just the biggest advocate of Portugal I think I've met here. What is it? - This it's a dirt, it is not dirt. - [Vince] Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, underneath. - Sauce mushrooms, mushrooms, and egg. Okay. With, with a little sauce with squid. - [Vince] Oh, so it's a squid ink like breadcrumb. - Yes. You have chorizo also. Here is a mushrooms. Here- iot's a fake truffle. - Oh, fake truffle. - Outside it's a squid, inside it's a typical Portuguese. You have bread, chicken, pork. And after this blend is smoked. - Okay. And you smoke it. I couldn't construct something to look this nice. Even if it wasn't food. - Yes. Yes. - Mushroom right off the bat. Beautiful, beautiful earthy mushrooms. The creaminess from the egg. I wanna get a bite with the yogurt. - It's umami. - Very, very umami. - Food. - This is like a smoke bomb and I love it. I love it. It's almost like a cigar. - Now for the reserve, you try it. - Oh my gosh. You are a hundred percent right? - I think it's possible. Yes? - Because when you think about it, what is, what do people pair a lot with cigars, right? They like Port for that. You get that same effect with this. - Yes. - This is amazing. - Yes, it is. - I've goosebumps, I'm so. The Ferreira Dona Antonia Reserva White Port was floral, woodsy, fruity and peppery. And it paired with the smokey umami flavors wonderfully. This is a great example of how wines can elevate a dish. Port and cigars are a classic pairing because the strong, heavy cigar is balanced by the fruity Port. But yet the Port has enough weight to stand up to the intense smoke. And the smoked meat was really smoky, just like a cigar. And the saltiness of the squid ink was also complimented by the sugar and the wine. By the way, Chef was really impressed. I put together the cigar thing he was going for all on my own. - And do you speak, I not speak with him before. - Yeah, no, I didn't. I wasn't prompted. - It's not, it's not is not, it's not fake! It's not fake! - We paired the main course with a table red from the Douro. Casa Ferreirinha's Quinta de Leda. Absolutely beautiful fragrant, cherries and flowers. - Yes. - Thank you. - Many textures. The cauliflower. - So this is-- - This is raw. - [Vince] Raw, purree'd, and then seared. - Yes. - Great. - [Rui] A sauce. The cheek black pork. - Black pork cheek. - And the lardo. The same pork. - That's the same pork, that's the fat. - [Rui] The lard, the fat. - Okay. So look at how it shreds. I had a bite of the meat alone and it just melts. Wow. When you get it with the lardo, it really does elevate it to, to the next level. I hope all of you get to try black pork this good in your lifetimes. The tannin in the wine matched with the fat of the pork while the acidity cut through the fat of the lardo and the creaminess of the cauliflower. Wow. I mean look at it. What is this? - This is hazelnut. - [Vince] Oh, I see the hazelnut. - The hazelnut is here and after you have hazel malt. - Yeah. Okay. It's like a caramelized. - [Rui] Yes. Chocolate coffee hazelnut. - And I will say, Port is, you know, you can pair it with other things, but it is, it's the best with dessert. - If you have this wine, it's not same LBV or vintage. - If you have an LBV or vintage. - It is good for cheese. - Oh, interesting. - So you-- - The interest. - The stuff that's more serious. Let's do it with savory. - This, I know this wine, this one is, is better for the coffee, chocolate, but it's not a black chocolate. - Yeah. There's a famous pairing in America. Wedding cake and champagne. It's the worst pairing on the planet. You have dry acidic champagne with sweet wedding cake. - Champagne for me is good with oyster, meat, fish. But dessert is not good. - No. - No. - Because you have to have to have to have sugar in your wine to match sugar and dessert. You cannot have a sweet dish and have zero sugar in your wine, it's no good. It clashes. You got it. Sweet dishes need sweet wines to pair. It's why Ports are so often the choice of restaurants around the world for their dessert pairings. Citrus, and stone fruit desserts pair better with white Ports, nutty and light chocolate desserts with Tawnies, like what we have here, and dark chocolate and berry desserts best with Rubies. - This region. The desert beautiful and because the Doruo is unique, in my opinion, it's unique. - Obviously there are, you know, the Tabernas and there's casual food, but this is a treat. Both, I think for obviously your guests and treat for me. - Yes. - So thank you so much. - Thank you. Thank you and nice to meet you. Thank you. - And so ends our adventure in Port. Is there any wine like it? You tell me you like a Cabernet. I'll find you a dozen wines and similar style, but Port, no one can touch it. It's a wine that could be had casually and cocktails with friends or formally with meals. It can be part of your usual routine or part of a once in a lifetime experience. You can get a Port from the year your child was born and trust that when you give it to him on their 21st birthday, it'll just be hitting it's stride. Or get one from the year you got married and have it on your 60th anniversary. Pass a bottle down two, three, four generations. Knowing that you've got a time capsule with a piece of you attached. Or have some tonight, knowing that winemakers don't really care how you drink it, as long as it brings you joy. And while the people who make these wines may change the tradition of Port, but the Douro Valley itself continues to endure. I hope you enjoyed the magic that is Port and we'll see ya next time on V it's Vino. Hey, Vince here. Hope you enjoyed the episode. If you have a moment, follow us on Instagram, and if you really wanna supPort, please consider joining Vino VIP on visforvino.com. It's our members only club with a ton of benefits. Thanks for watching and see you soon.