40 year old port

There are four types of "indicated-age ports" - 10, 20, 30 and 40 (or in some places more than 40) years old port. As you can clearly see on the label, they are cask matured, or to put it another way, they are tawny or wood ports.

Ports are aged in two ways: in glass bottles or in large wooden casks. The former are the vintage ports and the subject of another entry. What we are concerned with today are the tawny ports, so called because they are tea coloured. (Bottle aged ports are less "oxidised" and keep their red colour better, hence ruby ports).

There are different conventions for indicating age in alcoholic beverages. For spirits such as brandy and whisky, the age is that of the youngest component. However, for port, that is the "average" age of the blend. However the older the wine, the less there is (evaporation and consumption), hence the blend must rely on a large amount of wine around the age indicated. For the above wine, the base must be some 40 year old ports. To achieve this, the port houses will age some wine in barrels every year. Occasionally they will release some of these wine, but that is another story for another day.