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The current surface area (in millions of acres, equal to 7.4 million hectares) of the world’s vineyards, as reported last month by the Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV). If that was one contiguous vineyard, it would be larger than the state of West Virginia but smaller than South Carolina. Bigger than Ireland but smaller than Austria. The OIV also reported that a total of 6.9 billion gallons (260 million hectoliters) of wine were produced from those vineyards in 2019—while 6.4 billion gallons (244 mhl) was consumed.

The two major styles of Port that require decanting are:

A. Vintage Port and Tawny Port

B. Vintage Port and Single-Quinta Vintage Port

C. Ruby Port and Late-Bottled Vintage Port

D. All Ports require decanting

The only Ports that need decanting are those that throw a sediment. These include two of the major styles: Vintage Port and Single-Quinta Vintage Port. None of the other major styles (Tawny, Reserve, or Late-Vintage Bottled) throw a sufficient sediment. Vintage Port is made only in exceptional years when Port shippers “declare” a vintage. A vintage Port may come from grapes from several quintas (renowned vineyard estates) as well as grapes grown by dozens of small, individual grape growers. Vintage Ports are first aged just two years in barrel, to round off their powerful edges. Then they are aged reductively (with only the tiniest amount of oxygen) for a long time in the bottle. A decade’s worth of aging is standard, and several decades used to be fairly common. To maintain the intensity, balance, and richness of vintage Port, it is neither fined nor filtered. This, coupled with the fact that Port grapes have thick skins and a lot of tannin, means that vintage Port throws a great deal of sediment, and always needs to be decanted.

In the years a shipper chooses not to declare a year as vintage quality, the grapes that would have gone into vintage Port are often used to make a Single-Quinta Vintage Port. The idea behind these Ports is that the very best vineyard estates are often located in special mesoclimates that allow exceptional wines to be made even in years when the vintage as a whole may not be declared. Apart from blending, Single-Quinta Vintage Ports are made in the same manner as Vintage Ports, so that the wine must eventually be decanted.

“Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.”

—Paulo Coelho
Author of The Alchemist

18.3

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