Garrafeira

The Portuguese word meaning “wine cellar” or “bottle cellar” (from garrafa—”bottle”).  In reference to nonfortified Portuguese table wines, the word garrafeira indicates a wine of especially high quality.  However, garrafeira is also a rich and rare style of Port from a single outstanding year. The Port is aged briefly in wood and then a long time—as many as twenty to fifty years—in large glass bottles, after which it is decanted and transferred into standard 750 milliliter bottles to be sold.