Roots can be 10 meters and more long and enable the plant to have access to humidity, even if everything seems dry and hot on the surface. But the textures of schist helps the roots of the wine to grow down, towards the water. This rock is able to store water – however, it’s pretty deep underground. How can the vines survive this drought and the heat? Here comes the second feature to help: The soil. The soil consists of schist. However, the summers are very dry and very hot – and we see temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius. There is also quite some rain in the winter. The winters are cold, we see temperatures close to the freezing point, sometimes we have snow and ice in the valley. Which is Portuguese, of course, and means “9 months of winter, 3 months of hell”. Whenever you read an article about the Douro Valley, there is a good chance that it will bring the famous sentence “9 meses de inverno, 3 meses de inferno”. Why does the wine have to come from a specific region? What makes the Douro Valley so special? Two things make the Douro Valley very special: The climate and the soil. luckily the grape spirit is very much diluted when its tasted at the Port Wine Institute. I had the pleasure to try some of this brandy – and this was a painful experience. To make sure, all the grape spirit used for Port Wine needs to get approved by the Tasters at the Port Wine Institute. It’s important that the brandy doesn’t alter the aroma or color of the Port Wine – it’s absolutely mandatory that the brandy is colorless and flavorless. But… they also have to taste the quality of the 77% strong brandy – which suddenly doesn’t sound like so much fun. Yes, they do taste every single Port Wine that is sold commercially – so that sounds like something fantastic. By the way: I like most of the jobs that the Port Trade has to offer – however, there are a few people that have my biggest compassion: The tasters at the Port Wine Institute. The brandy is added 2 or 3 days into the fermentation process – when half the sugar is still remaining in the wine. The ratio of Brandy to Wine is approximately 1:4 – and this gives us in the end an alcohol volume of roughly 20%-21% for the mixture – which is now officially called Port Wine. The fermentation comes to a stop and the residual sugar remains in the wine – and this is why Port Wine is so sweet. However, the 77% strong brandy does stop this process – it’s so strong that it kills the yeast. During the fermentation all of the sugar is converted by yeast into alcohol – if nobody stops the process. “Fortified” means that very strong grape spirit was added to the wine (normally containing 77% alcohol). In one sentence: Port Wine is a fortified wine that comes from a specific region in the North of Portugal – the Douro Valley.
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