Our Grand Tawny fortified starts with ripe red grapes, usually Shiraz in our case, but traditional grape varieties in Portugal are Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), and others. We usually pick our Shiraz at 13.5 to 14 Baume, but for the Grand Tawny we leave the grapes out longer - as ripe as 15.5 Baume. (Baume is a French measure of the sugar content of the grapes, and as a rule of thumb, 1 Baume produces 1 percent of alcohol in the final wine.)
The very ripe grapes are crushed and fermented and closely monitored for sugar and alcohol content. At around 7 Baume the fermenting red wine is ‘fortified’ by the addition of spirit. The spirit (distilled alcohol of around 80/90% proof, made from grape skins) stops the fermentation, holding the sugar at that level and increasing the alcohol of the wine.
We now have a fortified Ruby Red wine, a Ruby Port, derived from its sparkling bright colour, with a high sugar level and a high alcohol compared with a table wine. After fortifying, the Ruby is then transferred to oak barrels for ageing.
Our Grand Tawny is matured for many years in barrel, and the slow exposure to oxygen allows it to develop a ‘tawny’ colour, with corresponding complex nutty, dried fruit, caramel and coffee characters. It is also usually a blend of many vintages of wine, the blending giving the blend age, youthfulness and complexity and with plenty of ageing, it’s ready to drink on release.
