Port wines (often just called Port) bring to mind that warm, slow sip in front of the fire after a good meal or perhaps after a day hitting the slopes. While people tend to serve Port as a solo sipper, it also pairs well with chocolate and cheese – including blue cheese, which doesn’t pair well with most wines. Port is a fortified wine, meaning the fermentation is stopped early by adding a neutral grape spirit designed to kill the yeast, thus locking in the wine’s natural sweetness and boosting the alcohol content.
All authentic Port wines must come from the Douro Valley in northern Portugal where they’re called Porto. Wines produced elsewhere before 2006 can still be called Port. All other Port-style wines must be called “dessert wines,” with most of these wines produced in either a ruby or tawny style.
Brian Carter of Brian Carter Cellars in Woodinville, Washington, says there are three basic types of Port, all of which relate to its aging process. Ruby is made with no time in barrel and designed to be drunk as soon as it is released. Tawny is aged for a minimum of three years in the barrel and meant to be drunk soon after release. Lastly, vintage is aged for a maximum of three years in the barrel and meant to be aged in the bottle before being consumed.
Although around 30 grape varieties can be used to make ruby and tawny Port wines, the five most popular Portuguese grape varieties are Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca (or Francesa), Tinta Roriz (also known as Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca and Tinta Cão (or Tinto Cão).
Portuguese Port wines produced in Washington state and southern Oregon
At Wilridge Vineyard, Winery & Distillery in Yakima, Washington, Paul Beveridge grows five Portuguese grape varieties (including the first Touriga Franca in Washington) that are used in their four varieties of Port-style wines. In another nod to Portugal, they tread their organic grapes by foot in the winery instead of running them through a destemmer. Once bottled, all their wines are naturally fermented with no yeast added. Then their Port wines are fortified using grape brandy made in the distillery.
Currently, Wilridge has two vintage-style Ports – a 2015 vintage and a 2019 vintage – along with a 2016 LBV-style Port. Beveridge describes an LBV (Late Bottle Vintage) Port as a vintage Port that’s been aged in wood. “An LBV at five years old might be like a vintage Port at 20 years old,” Beveridge says. Also, Wilridge makes a white Port, which is a Muscat Port inspired by the Muscat Beaumes-de-Venise in Provence. In addition, they began aging a tawny Port for 10 years which the winery will release in 2026.
Brian Carter Cellars began its own quest in 2007 to produce a Port-style wine called Opulento, which means “opulent” in Spanish and Portuguese. This wine was made with Touriga Nacional, Souzao, Tinta Cao and Tinto Roriz grapes that mostly came from Upland Vineyard near Sunnyside, Washington. Carter played a role in bringing some of these Port varieties into the states and helped plant them at Upland. In addition, Carter offers 2018 Opulento Bourbon barrel-aged Port and a ten-year 2014 Opulento Tawny, described as a Colheita. This is a term used for a single vintage-dated tawny Port with all grapes from one harvest that is then aged in small used oak barrels method in the cellar.
In Roseburg, Oregon Abacela produces both tawny and ruby Ports along with a non-vintage, all with five traditional Port varieties that include Touriga Nacional, Tinta Amarela, Tinta Cao, Bastardo and Tinta Roriz. As they’ve been growing these grapes for nearly 30 years, they were grandfathered in to use the name Port. Abacela also makes a similar port-style wine called an Angelica from 170+ year old vines they found on the property. The vines were planted by the first homestead family on the property between 1849-1853 and are the Spanish grape Listan Prieto or the Mission grape. Angelica is similar to the fortified wine the Jesuit missionaries made for sacramental and personal consumption. They process their Ports following a traditional Portuguese method of stomping the grapes and stopping the fermentation based upon formulas tied to volume, sweetness and potential alcohol.
In Idaho, Dude DeWalt Cellars in Eagle sources the fruit for their 2021 Touriga Nacional dessert wine (Port) from Kerry Hill Vineyards in Snake River Valley.
The varieties of PNW Port-style wines
Most Port-style wines produced in the Pacific Northwest are made from grapes more commonly grown in this region. Here’s some examples that point to the range of Pacific Northwest “dessert wines.”
Blasted Church (Okanagan Falls, British Columbia) makes a Port-style non-vintage dessert wine called Amen that’s made from Merlot grapes grown on their estate property. This wine is aged usually between five and eight years.
DANCIN Vineyards (Medford, Oregon) “Luna Notte” is a Port-style wine made with Barbera, a grape whose natural acidity brings a really nice balance to the richness of a fortified wine. “Luna Notte” translates to “moonlit night” and is a nod to the those after-hours decisions and the focused late-night cellar work that goes into getting a Port-style wine just right.
Dirty Laundry Winery (Summerland, British Columbia) blends Merlot and Pinot Noir grapes for their A Girl in Every Port. This non-vintage ruby Port-style wine was aged in French oak for three years and fortified with Alberta grain spirits.
Foris Wines (Cave Junction, Oregon) has a tawny and ruby style that are both made from their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. They bottled the ruby after three years in a neutral oak barrel and the remainder stayed in the barrel a total of 10 years before it was bottled as a tawny.
Naumes Suncrest’s (Talent, Oregon) 2017 Garnacha (Grenache) Port-style dessert wine was made with clone 1A Grenache grapes, hand-harvested in 2017 from Naumes Family Vineyards, and rested in neutral French oak for three years before bottling.
R. Stuart & Co. Winery (McMinnville, Oregon) makes Port-style wines using the remaining Cabernet Sauvignon grapes not used for their 3 Clowns Cabernet Sauvignon. Their current release of their non-vintage tawny dessert wine is a blend of vintages between 2002 (their first production year of Northwest tawny) to 2023. Also, their Colheita Tawny Dessert Wine is a single-vintage, barrel-aged for a minimum of seven years.
Nostalgia Wines (Oliver, British Columbia) crafts its Cherry Baby from 60% hand-picked Okanagan cherries and 40% Merlot. This non-vintage Port-style dessert wine is aged via the solera method, in which the older barrels are topped up with younger barrels.
Satyr Fire (McMinnville, Oregon) produces a white Port-style wine (called Mïruvör Türyandę, which is Elvish for “fortified wine”) is a blend of Gewürztraminer and Auxerroi. The flamboyant tropical and floral profile of the Gewürztraminer is perfect for these succulent, bold wines while the Auxerrois (another Alsatian varietal) helps center the flavors and bolster the acidity. These wines are fortified with brandy distilled 100% from Oregon wines.
Pinot Noir Port-style dessert wines
A select group of Willamette Valley vintners includes a Port-style dessert wine made from the Pinot Noir grapes that define this wine region.
Lachini Vineyards’ (Newberg, Oregon) seven-year tawny Pinot Port was crafted from three barrels of their ripest Pinot Noir lots (typically a Pommard clone) from their estate vineyard that had aged for a minimum of seven years (2009, 2010 and 2012 vintages). This wine is fortified with an artisan-made eau-de-vie from Clear Creek Distillery.
Laurel Ridge Winery (Carlton, Oregon) currently offers tawny and ruby Port-style wines. They created their first Port in 1998 after founder David Teppola had an overripe batch of harvested Pinot Noir grapes. He worked with Steve McCarthy at Clear Creek Distillery to produce some custom brandy made using their own Laurel Ridge wine. They chose to make Port using this process whenever they receive a batch of overripe red wine grapes. Other grape varieties they use in these wines include Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, all sourced from southern Oregon.
Nyssa Vineyard (Dundee, Oregon) makes an Areté Dessert Wine (meaning excellence in Greek), that’s a tawny Port-style wine made using Pinot Noir grapes from their estate vineyard in the Dundee Hills. This wine is fortified with brandy and then barrel-aged in small oak barrels for eight years.
Privé Vineyard (Newberg, Oregon) makes a solera Pinot Noir ruby Port-style wine using grapes from their estate vineyard that are picked when they are much riper/sweeter than they would pick for traditional still-red Pinot Noir. They just started working with their neighbors at Brixeur Spirits to create a distillate or brandy used to fortify their wines.
Suzor Wines’ (Winery Lane Collective, Beaverton, Oregon) Port-style wine is made from Pinot Noir grapes from their family’s vineyard, Menefee Vineyard. This wine called Pineau des Amis is made in the style of a Pineau des Charentes from western France, typically seen around the Bordeaux and Cognac regions. Then the wine is aged in aged Oregon Pinot Noir brandy that Westward Whiskey founder Christian Krogstad distilled back in 2007.
Willamette Valley Vineyards’ (Salem Hills, Oregon) Port-style Quinta Reserva Pinot Noir follows traditional methods used in Porto and was developed by their late winemaker, Forest Klaffke, who began at the winery in the 1990s. It is fortified with brandy made by an industry partner using the winery’s grapes. This Port is aged for a minimum of two years in neutral French oak. Also, each year, they set aside a barrel or two to blend later into their tawny Port.
