1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Tlie Tilla Nova Wine Lodges—Vintage Povts. 133^

hither and thither through the stores with cane903 of wine balanced on their heads,to the effect that the best Port is made- on the heads of the matulas. From the circumstance of the grapes having thoroughly ripened,these vintage wines are richer and fuller in flavour and stouter in body than the wines of ordinary years, and consequently require to be hept longer in the lodge, and to be very frequently racked before they can be shipped. These raclrings commonly take place at intervals of three months,the condition of the wine being the guide for the precise time when they should be effected; and at each racking a new blending of the wine is invariably made. A couple of years after the vintage the shipping of the wine commences, and continues for another two years or a little longer, by which time the wine loses the bloom of its rich purple hue,and shows indications of becoming tawny. When it has reached this stage it can only be shipped after having been refreshed, as it is called, with a young wine possessed of plenty of colour. With vintage Ports the grand object is to get them into bottle while theyretain their richness of colour and fulness of body;in which case they require a number of years, varying according to the character of the vintage, before they are fit for consumption. If kept in the lodge until they are four or five years old, they come forward far more quickly in bottle than when shipped at the end of their second year. During the last century it was the practice to ship selected wines of every year as vintage wines, but now only the wines of the best years are ranked in that category. Since the famous year of 1834 there have been in the Upper Douro sixteen years classed as vintage years— namely,'36,'40,'42,'44,'47,'50,'51,'53,'58,'61,'63,'67,'68, '70, '72-3, and '75, but out of these sixteen there were only four grand years,'40,'47,'63, and '70, with two others which almost deserved being thus classed—namely, '42 and '68: showing that on an average not more than one really grand vintage in the Upper Douro can be reckoned upon in each decade. Allthe Oporto houses,from Messrs.Gr. Gr.Sandeman and Sons