Any Experienced Port Makers?

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vernsgal

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I'm looking into starting my 1st port soon. I was wanting to know if anyone here has completed (aged to drinking) a non kit port :a1
 
Thought I would throw this at ya.
Most wine experts are 50/50 on aging fruit wines, not including grapes.
The reason: Grapes are very high in tannins, where as other fruits are not.
The higher the tannins, the longer it should age , according to the experts.
Also the lighter the fruit the lower the tannins, except for apples.
 
I have made several batches and must day that they turned out great.

Here is my basic approach..

1) Determine what you want. You almost need to set a goal of the exact finished ABV, volume, and residual sugar of your finished port.

2) determine what your fortifier will be and it's abv (brandy is recommended).

3) Research the Pearson's square. this is just a formula that, given your fortifier's abv and the current abv of the wine, and the desired abv of the resulting port, will tell you how many part of fortifier to how many parts of wine are needed.


The ports I make were aged only a year. Taste damn great.
 
Thought I would throw this at ya.
Most wine experts are 50/50 on aging fruit wines, not including grapes.
The reason: Grapes are very high in tannins, where as other fruits are not.
The higher the tannins, the longer it should age , according to the experts.
Also the lighter the fruit the lower the tannins, except for apples.
ya I read that too. This is why I'm looking for someone who has made a port or 2.
I have made several batches and must day that they turned out great.

Here is my basic approach..

1) Determine what you want. You almost need to set a goal of the exact finished ABV, volume, and residual sugar of your finished port.

2) determine what your fortifier will be and it's abv (brandy is recommended).

3) Research the Pearson's square. this is just a formula that, given your fortifier's abv and the current abv of the wine, and the desired abv of the resulting port, will tell you how many part of fortifier to how many parts of wine are needed.


The ports I make were aged only a year. Taste damn great.
Yay! I was hoping to find a member or 2 that has been successful with a port.
Did you make yours from fruit?
 
my oldest that i have made is 8 mos now.
the oldest that i have in my posession 60 years.
 
I have 6 gallons of Petit Syrah from fresh grapes (2012) that I am about ready to fortify. This stuff is black as night. Finished ABV was ~16%. Going to bump it up to 19.2% with Brandy, then backsweeten with a can of Alexander's Zinfandel Concentrate. NO SORBATE as this wine was MLF'd. I will let it meld a bit and then see where the oak levels are at. May bump it up a notch. The wine has already spent 6 mo in a Vadai and another 6 mo in glass Carboy.
 
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I like (and did) Mike's idea of back sweetening with Alexander's Zinfandel Concentrate. Although I just used Grape Concertrate it turned out great.
I used a 6 gallon bucket of Brunello juice. Fermented and cleared it. Fortified it with everclear (brandy works too) and back sweetened. I did oak it with Hungarian Oak.

It's 2011 vintage and is really good. but again, use the Pearson square as mentioned earlier. It's important to add the right amount of alcohol.
 
I am dang sure not as experienced as ibglowin are shoe...but i have to ask you guys.....a port is not to go dry and then backsweeten are flavor.
the whole idea of a port is to retain the sugar level and flavor level so as not to need the added sugar are flavor...
brandy, not everclear is suppose to be added at the halfway point of fermentation.
do not mean to offend, but what you made was a wine with added alcohol. sorry...i mean no offense.
please correct me with more info if i am wrong...
thanks.
 
I have been making port style wine for approx 10 years or so, but I am no expert on it.
It has always been a concern how to get the alcohol up there without dilution.
My ports are made from ever clear (195 proof ) and they are added during fermentation and it stops the fermentation because of the high alcohol content , which leaves you with a heavy bodied port and typically little sweet to off set the ABV. I will typically add the alcohol once there is approx 4% residual sugar left - but that is to the eyes of the winemakers taste.

I use everclear, typically I would add distillers charcoal with the everclear for a week prior to using it. That would usually take out most of the odors that come from it (fussils oils ) Back in the day (from what I read) Port was fortified with non cut brandy, which means distilled wine and not diluted with water,so the abv was similar to everclear

I also will add oak sticks in the everclear for approx 2 weeks - if not longer prior to adding to my port - it adds a little extra flavoring - similar to brandy

I hope this helps ?????
 
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steve, i like to get to about 6 percent sugar, and 9 in my heavy body blackberry, but i ask this.
do you backsweeten
are add flavor after you have add your everclear.
 
i was actually waiting for you to chime in....how you been, and are you snowed in.

You know I like my port !!
We have about 4-5'' of snow and more coming this weekend !

My Uncle passed away on Sunday - So we have been dealing with that - Just got back from the funeral a couple of hours ago. I still feel numb - like it is all a dream or something like that - does that make sense ?
 
steve, i like to get to about 6 percent sugar, and 9 in my heavy body blackberry, but i ask this.
do you backsweeten
are add flavor after you have add your everclear.

Like I mentioned above ^ I do not back sweeten, everything is natural. I add the alcohol when I choose how much residual sugar I desire and stop the fermentation by adding the everclear to kill the yeast.

Warning !!
Sometimes I had to wake up every 2 hours to get that right window of opportunity -
 
hey buddy, sorry about your uncle, I saw you were getting some lake effect.
I know what you mean by , the natural taste, that what it is suppose to be.
And I think besides me, you like ports as much...
Stay Warm.
Hey , btw ...made an offer in milwaukee on a house....we may be neigbors by 80 miles..lol
 
I have been making port style wine for approx 10 years or so, but I am no expert on it.
It has always been a concern how to get the alcohol up there without dilution.
My ports are made from ever clear (195 proof ) and they are added during fermentation and it stops the fermentation because of the high alcohol content , which leaves you with a heavy bodied port and typically little sweet to off set the ABV. I will typically add the alcohol once there is approx 4% residual sugar left - but that is to the eyes of the winemakers taste.

I use everclear, typically I would add distillers charcoal with the everclear for a week prior to using it. That would usually take out most of the odors that come from it (fussils oils ) Back in the day (from what I read) Port was fortified with non cut brandy, which means distilled wine and not diluted with water,so the abv was similar to everclear

I also will add oak sticks in the everclear for approx 2 weeks - if not longer prior to adding to my port - it adds a little extra flavoring - similar to brandy

I hope this helps ?????
Steve my condolences on your loss.

Thanks again for your help.As I mentioned to you I do have a slew of questions.And I'm sure others will have some too.

1/- I have read you can't really make a port from fruit. A true port is from grapes. I'm not quibbling but do you find this true?
 
Kim
That is probably true according to tradition -
I have made a blueberry port that was fantastic !!

I always think a port has to be a heavy bodied wine of sort - otherwise I believe it would be more of a desert wine ?
 
hey buddy, sorry about your uncle, I saw you were getting some lake effect.
I know what you mean by , the natural taste, that what it is suppose to be.
And I think besides me, you like ports as much...
Stay Warm.
Hey , btw ...made an offer in milwaukee on a house....we may be neigbors by 80 miles..lol

Well that is definitely alot closer than Texas !!!
 
haha you did mention to me you made a mean blueberry.

2/ when making your starter wine do you pay attention to the PH or TA? Does it change with the addition of the alcohol?
 
vernsgal.....there is lots of ancient stories about port.
some say the first port was from dates, others think figs,
modern day they think grapes....
you have to look....the dry arid climates were perfect for dates, and figs, but not for grapes,
grape vinyards, cultures started with rome and greece.
do some research...you will see, that wine was made from anything
that was wild....not cultivated.
untile the wine famine in rome.
 

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