ENGLAND LAYS CLAIM
The Past of Port
How did port come to be a fortified wine? According to one legend, it was the discovery of an Englishman
‘Whoever started it, the reason is clear: it was much more stable and kept longer if brandy had
been added.’
FOR ABOUT 300 years, port has been much the same style it is today. How it came to be a fortified wine nobody knows precisely. Some say it was a couple of young Englishmen from Liverpool who first shipped Douro wine fortified with brandy out of Porto in 1678, unwittingly inventing what became a world-renowned style. Whoever started it, the reason is clear: it was much more stable and kept longer if brandy had been added.
Why Englishmen? Rows and wars between England and France had resulted in a ban on imports of red Bordeaux – claret – and the English wine trade had to find an alternative source of supply. Portugal, England’s ally since 1386, was the obvious choice.
At first wine was shipped from Viana, near the northern border with Spain. It was probably very like the red Vinho Verde of today, high acid and rather an acquired taste. Nevertheless, the trade grew, to the extent that merchants looked further south and discovered Douro wines. British merchants set up home, office and warehouses in Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia on the Douro estuary. They worked alongside the Portuguese merchants, but stamped a distinctly British colonial feel upon both cities, and, as they bought Douro estates, on the entire region.
This is an extract from The Wine & Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal, published by Inn House Publishing. Reproduced with kind permission of the authors.
Look out for The Wine & Food Lover's Guide to Porto & Gaia, due to be published before Christmas 2014
