S photos courtesy of Eleven Winery


ounds intriguing at the very least, but for a good percentage of Earth’s population enjoying a small glass of port is the way to cap a wonderful meal. And you don’t need to be British to appreciate port. In fact, a number of wineries throughout Washington State produce port-style wine for loyal fans that enjoy it with meals, by itself or accompanied with a nice cigar.


Port is a dessert style wine that packs plenty of residual sugar at relatively high


alcohol (around 20% alcohol by volume). True port comes from northern Portugal’s Douro Valley where the type of grapes grown, and how they are cultivated, must adhere to strict guidelines. In large part, we have the wars between the French and English to thank because periodic squabbles led England to seek wine from a more reliable source. Enter Portugal. During the 16th century the Brits discovered that fortified wine (i.e., high in alcohol) traveled beter than lower alcohol wines. England developed a taste for port, the population got hooked and the Portuguese port industry mushroomed. New world winemakers include a cadre of vintners in Washington that use a similar


process as developed in Portugal for making port but with very different types of grape varieties and styles. Here, grapes such as syrah or merlot go through their fermentation process, as do traditional wines. However, at some point during fermentation winemakers add neutral grape spirits (brandy), which stops further fermentation. Tis leaves a lot of residual sugar. (Evidently those litle yeast cells just can’t stand too much alcohol and so they cease fermentation.) Te result is a wine high in alcohol around 18 to 20% by volume, high in sugar content and rich in fruit flavors. Reminiscent of champagne that technically can only be called Champagne if made


in the Champagne region of France; true “port” is made only in Portugal. Because of European laws, we’re prohibited from calling it “port” in the U.S. and consequently you most oſten see the moniker “port-style” or “port-like” applied to the label. However, there are exceptions to this rule and one such exception is Yakima River Winery (Prosser, WA) where John and Louise Rauner have produced port beginning in the late 1970’s. However, at the time it was illegal to produce fortified wine in Washington for commercial purposes, which in 1982 prompted Rauner to venture to Olympia, and argue successfully to allow fortified wine production. Producing both a Shiraz Port and a merlot-based port dubbed John’s Port; the


Rauners continue to display the exceptional fruit of Yakima Valley. My sample of John’s Port portrayed concentrated fruit flavors, chocolate notes throughout and a velvet feel. Priced at around $20 for a standard 750 ml botle, the sweetness of John’s Port would match gloriously with the saltiness of a Stilton blue cheese (as they intend to do this Christmas season with their last botle of 1982 John’s Port). For holiday parties we have the perfect antidote to any host’s “Just bring a botle


of wine,” reply to your “What should I bring?” question. Any of Spokane-based Knipprath Cellars’ ports, of which there are many. Knipprath Cellars’ Henning Knipprath began making ports in 1993. States Knipprath, “Making port seemed a foregone conclusion. I already had a special fondness for port and then I acquired several small Spanish oak barrels that I brought back from a Desert Storm deployment while serving as an Air Force pilot.” Today, Knipprath Cellars produces eight different ports of different styles, flavors and sizes. For a number of years, their best seller has


30 WA WASHINGTON MAGAZINE Fall 2011 www.WAstatemag.com


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