TIPS FROM THE PROS BY DAWSON RASPUZZI PORT-STYLE WINEMAKING Making American Ports Port is a fortified wine made in Portugal, but many North American winemakers are making their own versions. Use their advice to try your own Port-style wine!

or Port wines we are big fans we stop fermentation we press it into a of Syrah and have had good chilled tank, add sulfur, and fortify all at results with it, but I find the once. If the yeast dies slow, you can miss most exciting variety to be Pe- your mark, and it can create some undesir- tite Sirah. Color and tannin can able by-products. Fbe an issue due to the limited time we have For yeast, you want something easy to on skins, but Petite handles this as well kill that cannot stand high alcohol. There as adding a bit of acid. We have tried the are many options these days, but being able traditional Portuguese varieties but have to stop the fermentation is critical. Any fla- found, at least with the vineyard we have vor the yeast adds is inconsequential. worked with, that the fruit is lacking and We have an ongoing blend for our Ports the brandy ends up dominating the aromas. dating back to 1987. We only bottle every We pick our grapes close to 23 °Brix. 4 years now but will add small lots of Port Most people are exposed to extremely to the blend each year. So at this point our Matt Meyer grew up in the Silver Oak Vineyard sweet Ports, but if you travel to Portugal current Port has about 24 vintages blended. watching his father grow world-renowned you will find some that are almost dry and I would recommend Tawny for home Cabernet Sauvignon. From an early age, his everything in between. While ours is still winemakers because you don’t have to goal was to be a winegrower and the passion he developed for wine led him to UC-Davis, sweet it is on the lower end and I find the worry too much about oxidation, which is where he earned a Master’s in viticulture in additional acid that we capture helps bal- often a concern with home wines. Also it’s 2002. Meyer met his wife, Karen, in Oregon in ance the wine. one of the few home wines you can just 1999 while working the crush at Argyle Winery We are looking for about 4–6% residual leave in barrel. If you make a new vintage a in the Willamette Valley. Together, they own sugar in our Port, so we fortify right when couple years later you can bottle some up Meyer Family Cellars in Yorkville, California. the fermentation is racing along. The day and top up the barrel with the new vintage.

e produce four neutral grain spirit but it tastes much better different kinds and that is what would be used in Portugal. of Port the old Using a lower proof brandy will require fashioned Por- more and dilute the end product more. We tuguese way. stop the fermentation when we have about WWe use French-American hybrid grapes 5% alcohol (about 10 °Brix). After fortifying because we’ve been growing them for we aim for 19 to 20% ABV. 45 years and they form our core estate We use different yeasts depending on wines, ranging from dry to semi-dry — we the vintage, including D21, D254, RC-212, wanted our Ports to fit with this family on or VL1. On a less ripe year we’ll choose a the sweet end. We make a Red Port using yeast that expresses softer, deeper fruit. Maréchal Foch and Millot, aged 13 months For home winemakers, try to keep a in older American oak barrels. We have a very cool to cold fermentation because it Winemaker and Owner of Wollersheim Winery Tawny Port, aged 4+ years. We also make a goes really fast . . . you need to monitor the in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, Philippe Coquard White Port with Muscat grapes and an un- drop of sugar and the rise of natural alcohol was trained to make wine by his grandfather, aged Port Rosé using Foch and Edelweiss every 30 minutes to catch that right point. father, and uncles as a young boy. He later graduated with degrees in winemaking, viti- pressed at the same time. We like to pick When your hydrometer reads 10 °Brix it is culture, and marketing. He prides himself on all these grapes around 21 °Brix. time to kill your fermentation by the addi- combining tradition with the unique climate of We use unaged grape brandy at 191 tion of the brandy. Let it settle for a week Wisconsin to produce distinctive regional wines. proof to fortify. It costs a lot more than then rack it off and the aging can start.

14 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2016 WINEMAKER e produce different the longer you need to ferment before you styles of Port using add your grape spirit to hit your residual different varietals. sugar target and vice a versa. If sugars are The main grape is lower, you have to fortify earlier to achieve Petite Sirah. Where the desired sweetness. This is why you mostW red grapes need a longer maceration don’t harvest just by Brix alone; pH is also time to pick up its rich red color and body, very important. It’s all about balance in the Petite Sirah is one of the few grapes that finished product. you can have intense color and body in just There are two types of Ports: Vin- a few days. This allows us to have a finished tage-style and wood Ports, which we make wine with bold flavors and aging potential both of. The vintage-style is out of the even with the short maceration time from barrel between two and three years. This is Ports. We also use Tinta Roriz, which when the Port that will continue to develop in the blended, adds an elegant softness and bottle over the years, and the fruit charac- Peter Prager has been the Winemaker at fruitiness to the Petite Sirah. We also use teristics will always be a part of the Port. the family owned and operated Prager Cabernet Sauvignon for our 10-year-old The wood ports are the ones that reach full Winery & Port Works in St. Helena, Tawny Port. We like this grape because we maturity (heavily oxidized) in the barrel, and California since 1995. He received his can get rich flavors but not a deep color, are always named after their color: White, enology degree from Fresno State. which makes it perfect for turning brown Tawny, and Ruby. White port should be in (tawny) during its long-term barrel aging. the barrel at least three years, if not longer. Chardonnay is used in our White Port Tawnies have to age in the wood for a mini- production. This is a very rich grape that mum of six years; we start at ten. adds depth and flavor with long-term barrel Since Ports don’t require much atten- aging, usually four to eight years. tion in the barrel because of the higher When and how much spirit we fortify alcohol, home winemakers can bottle what with depends on what the initial Brix is. they want when they want, then bottle the The higher the sugars before fermentation rest at some later date. Have fun with it.

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