Styles of port: Single-quinta vintage

Just as wine-producing châteaux evolved in France in the 18th and 19th centuries, the cult of the single, winemaking quinta has developed in Portugal, and many of the better-known Douro quintas belong to a particular port shipper. Single-quinta ports are made in much the same way as vintage port, aged in wood for two or three years and bottled without filtration so that they throw a sediment (and should therefore be decanted before serving). Although some independent quintas produce a vintage port nearly every year, a number of significant differences distinguish single-quinta vintages from declared vintage ports. First of all, shippers’ single-quinta ports tend to be made in good (but not outstanding) years which are not declared. In years which are declared for vintage port, many of these wines will be the lots that make up the backbone of the vintage blend and are not therefore available for release as wines in their own right. Secondly many single-quinta ports are kept back by shippers and sold only when the wine is considered to be ready to drink, perhaps eight or ten years after the harvest. Single quintas or individual vineyards in the Douro were given a fillip in 1986 when the law requiring all port to be exported via Vila Nova de Gaia was relaxed, opening the way for a number of small vineyard owners who, before, had been restricted to selling their wines to large firms.