Port vs Sherry

I’ve recently been asked a question about the difference in the way that Port and Sherry are fortified.

Well, in order to answer this, I’ll need to start, like Julie Andrews, at the very beginning. While both are typically classified as ‘liqueur wines’ and fortified with wine or a stronger grape spirit during the vinification process, the step during which the process of fortification takes place is what ends up creating two very different wines.

Port

Following a downturn during the late seventeenth, early eighteenth centuries in trade between Britain and France (the neighbor from whom they traditionally purchased most of their wine) Britain turned to Portugal and Spain, from whom it was also easy to ship wine. Transport once more facilitating development, the trade in Port was centered on Porto (hence the name), at the mouth of the river Douro, but then developed along this river and its many tributaries. The myth goes that an Abbot from the monastery of Lamego discovered that he could create a softer, more palatable and longer lasting wine by adding brandy before the wine had finished fermenting. Whether it is true or not, this is, in essence how Port is made.

When, during the vinification process, the sugars in the fermenting wines have reached between 6% and 9% alcohol, a grape spirit of around 77% is added in the ratio of one part spirit to four parts wine. This effectively kills any yeast and halts fermentation, leading to residual unconverted sugar and therefore a sweeter wine, with a higher level of alcohol. After this point, the wine is blended (leading to different classification; e.g. Tawny Port, Ruby Port) or, if the vintage was of a particularly high quality, left as a ‘Declared Year’ (e.g. an LBV – Late Bottled Vintage), barreled, and left to mature.

Sherry

Taking its name from the neighboring Spain’s southern town of Jerez in Cadiz, Andalucia, Sherry was popularized during Britain’s Tudor period and remains today the wine’s highest export market. While sales of the old-fashioned, sickly-sweet Cream and Pale Cream sherry’s are rapidly declining internationally, quality wines such as the drier Finos, Manzanillas and Amontillados, as well as the premium aged wines like Olorosos are making a resurgence, to the fortune of the major Sherry houses or bodegas of the region.

While soil types and grape varieties (three in sherry, where up to eighty-five are authorized in the making of Port) are entirely different in both the manufacture of Port and Sherry, it is the different methods used in their production that I want to focus on. The two basic types of Sherry are: Fino and Oloroso and can be simplified as follows: while the first is far lighter; during the pressing of the grapes, the run-off juices (less concentrated juice and tannin; around 70%) is used for the production of Fino, the second, Oloroso uses the remaining pressed juice (more body; around 20%).

Following this – and here is the answer to the original question – fermentation of the grape ‘must’ (the pressed juice) is allowed to take place completely, converting all sugars to alcohol. During the fermentation process, a layer of natural yeast, called Flor, develops on the surface of the wine, an effect which leads to a desired, natural reduction in the overall acidity of the wine. The wine is then examined by a cellar master, who decides which are to be used to determine the wine’s future: the lighter, finer ones are used in the production of Finos, and the richer, heavier ones, Olorosos. It is only after this, that fortification takes place using mitad y mitad – meaning half and half, which is a mixture of high-strength alcohol and old wine. Unique to the Sherry region is the following blending process, where barrels are arranged (in storage houses or bodegas) a pyramidal structure, youngest at the top, down to the base of the oldest vintages, in layers, or criaderas. This allows both maturation and blending to take place, and also leads to a specific ‘house’ style being maintained.

In essence, the difference between the fortification process in Port and Sherry is simply the time at which this fortification takes places; during, in the case of Port, and after, in the case of Sherry. While there is so much more to say about the fascinating evolutions in wine-making that took place in order to produce the totally different styles of Port and Sherry, I hope I’ve inspired you to go out and pick up a bottle at your local wine store. Try Port and blue cheese, or a dry sherry with chorizo sausage, a hard Spanish ham or cheese.