Styles of port: Garrafeira

The word garrafeira, meaning ‘private cellar’ or ‘reserve’, is more commonly associated with Portuguese table wines than with port. Until 2002 it did not form part of the IVDP’s officially authorized lexicon but was a style produced by a single shipper, Niepoort. Now a port may be designated as a garrafeira if it comes from a single year and is aged for a minimum of seven years in glass demi-john before bottling (like some madeira). In practice the wines age in 5- or 10-l demi-johns for considerably longer than the minimum. After 20, 30, or even 40 years in glass, the wine is decanted off its sediment and rebottled in conventional 75-cl bottles. The wines combine depth of fruit with the delicate, silky texture associated with tawny port. Three dates appear on the label: date of harvest, date of bottling (i.e. when the wine was transferred to demi-john), and date of decanting (i.e. decanted from the sediment that has formed in the demi-john and transferred to a 75 cl bottle).