Question about Port fermentation
 

This may be a stupid question, but I can't think of a totally satisfactory
answer off the top of my head.

I know that Port is made by starting a fermentation of a must, and then when
it reaches a certain point (4% or so), brandy or other neutral grain spirits
are added to halt fermentation, and to bring the % alcohol of the wine up to
around 20% or so.

Question is, why bother fermenting it at all? Why not just start with a
quantity of must and add brandy accordingly, so that its 20% ABV? Do the
esters from the fermentation add something, or are the yeast hulls needed
for the aging process in some way? Or do some Port makers do just what I'm
talking about, and skip the fermentation stage altogether?

Does anybody know?

- Chris Sprague

The best I can say as a reply is that some few vintners do just that-
they add brandy or neutral spirits to unfermented must, such a wine is
called a Mistelle and can be quite good. One of our local wineries,
Perry Creek in El Dorado California makes a Rouge and a blanc made from
muscat. Several Cognac and Armagnac producers make a mistelle, but in
France they have their own A.O.C. names, as in Pineau du Charentais(sp?)
and Floc de Gascon. There are other areas in France I wont go into,
suffice to say they are different from fortified wine in flavor and I
have only seen that one rose mistelle fom P.C. and no other red
examples. Try what you can find and have fun!

"Chris Sprague" > wrote:

> I know that Port is made by starting a fermentation of a must,
> and then when it reaches a certain point (4% or so), brandy or
> other neutral grain spirits are added to halt fermentation, and
> to bring the % alcohol of the wine up to around 20% or so.
>
> Question is, why bother fermenting it at all?

The answer is quite simple: Residual sugar. Fermentation is not
interrupted at a certain degree of alcohol, but at a given amount
of residual sugar, turning around 100 g/l (Taylor probably a
little more). The usual alcoholic degree at that moment would be
around 7%, but can be higher in very fine years or lower in less
good.

M.

"Michael Pronay" > wrote in message
...
>
> The answer is quite simple: Residual sugar. Fermentation is not
> interrupted at a certain degree of alcohol, but at a given amount
> of residual sugar, turning around 100 g/l (Taylor probably a
> little more). The usual alcoholic degree at that moment would be
> around 7%, but can be higher in very fine years or lower in less
> good.
>
> M.

That makes perfect sense now that I think about it. Thank you very much.

- Chris Sprague

"Chris Sprague" > wrote:

> That makes perfect sense now that I think about it. Thank you
> very much.

You're welcome! But in fact, this wisdom came from a trip to the
Douro with George Sandeman (and from talks with Dirk van der
Niepoort); I don't remember having read abiout it in one of my
reference books.

M.