Ruby Port
Young, fruity Port aged briefly.
What is Ruby Port? Ruby Port is the youngest, freshest and most widely produced style of Portuguese fortified wine, made in the Douro Valley DOC in northern Portugal. It is fortified during fermentation with aguardente, a neutral grape spirit, which halts the yeast and locks in natural grape sugar, producing a sweet red wine of roughly 19 to 22 percent alcohol by volume. After fermentation it is held briefly in concrete or stainless steel tanks rather than wooden casks, a choice that protects its deep red color and vivid primary fruit. Basic Ruby is aged two to three years before bottling and is designed to be drunk young.
Origin and Regulation
The Douro Valley is one of the oldest legally demarcated wine regions in the world. The Port region was officially established in 1756, making it the third-oldest demarcated zone after Chianti in 1716 and Tokaj in 1730. Today the category is overseen by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, known as the IVDP, which sets the rules every bottle of Port must follow and approves premium designations through a formal tasting panel.
Like all Port styles, Ruby is built on a small group of native red grapes grown on the steep schist terraces of the Douro. The principal varieties are Touriga Nacional, widely considered the most desirable, alongside Touriga Franca (also called Francesa), which is the most widely planted, plus Tinta Roriz (the same grape as Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca and Tinto Cão. These grapes give Ruby its weight, color and dark-fruited backbone.
Production and Style
The defining production choice for Ruby Port is reductive storage. After fortification the wine is moved into large inert vessels of concrete or stainless steel, which keep oxygen out and preserve the youthful red fruit character. This is what distinguishes Ruby from Tawny Port, which is deliberately aged in smaller wooden casks to develop oxidative, nutty notes. The result is a full-bodied wine with bright red and black fruit, soft sweetness and a warming finish. Before bottling, individual lots are blended to match a consistent house style, then fined and cold-filtered. Ruby is built for early drinking, not for further cellaring.
Sub-categories Within the Ruby Family
Ruby is not a single product but a family of styles. Reserve Ruby is a premium blend approved by an IVDP tasting panel, replacing the older Vintage Character label that was prohibited in 2002. Late Bottled Vintage, or LBV, is a single-vintage Port bottled four to six years after the harvest and may be filtered or unfiltered; the unfiltered bottle-matured version must spend at least three years in glass before release. Crusted Port is a multi-vintage blend bottled unfiltered under a driven cork and needs decanting. At the top sits Vintage Port, aged a maximum of two and a half years in vat before bottling and then ten to forty years or more in bottle.
Rosé Port, introduced in 2008, is technically a Ruby made with limited skin contact and fermented in the manner of a rosé, offering a lighter, fruitier expression of the same fortified tradition.
