Ep 346: Port Wine

<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Port is an historical, complex, and sometimes confusing wine, but it is more than worth your time to learn about. M.C. Ice go over everything from the vineyards of the Douro, to the history of this wine (with geopolitical implications), to how it's made, and the array of styles. There's something for everyone in the world of Port and after this show, you should be able to figure out which is for you!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Here is the written primer to go along with the show...</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>The Basics: What is Port?</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Port is a Portuguese fortified wine, meaning you add distilled grape spirit, or brandy, to the wine at some point during production. A wine is technically only Port if grapes are from the Douro Valley in northeast Portugal and winemaking takes place there or in the area surround the city of Porto on the Atlantic Coast. There are tons of styles and flavors of this wine – there’s something for everyone.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Douro Valley: The Vineyards</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Douro Valley wine region follows the path of the Douro River as it comes out of Spain into Portugal. The region goes west through rugged, remote, steep and terraced granite mountains of northern Portugal, past  the city of Porto into Atlantic Ocean. There are three official zones of the Douro Valley: the Baixo (lower) Corgo, the Cima (higher) Corgo and the Douro Superior</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <div style="margin-left: 2em;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Baixo Corgo</strong> is the westernmost zone and is cool, rainy and the sub region with the most vineyards.Often these grapes are for cheap ruby and tawny Port</span></li> <li><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Cima Corgo</strong>  is upstream from the Baixo Corgo and is where the best vineyards for Port are located