Styles
Port from Portugal comes in several styles, which can be divided into two broad categories:
- Wines that have matured in sealed glass bottles, with no exposure to air, and experience what is known as "reductive" aging. This process leads to the wine losing its colour very slowly and produces a wine which is smoother on the palate and less tannic.
- Wines that have matured in wooden barrels, whose permeability allows a small amount of exposure to oxygen, and experience what is known as "oxidative" aging. They too lose colour, but at a faster pace. They also lose volume to evaporation (angel's share), leaving behind a wine that is slightly more viscous.
The IVDP (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto) further divides port into two categories: normal ports (standard rubies, tawnies and white ports) and Categorias Especiais, special categories, which include everything else.
Read more about this topic: Port Wine
Famous quotes containing the word styles:
“There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)