Vintage Ports are very grapey. This grapiness comes from the practice of bottling these wines after they have spent 2 years in barrel. Vintage Ports are to be held in the bottle for a long time; ten years considered being just a start while truly great vintages can require 20 years and more to reach optimum maturity. They keep their grapey flavor and, through bottle aging, develop bottle bouquet, a special quality found only in bottle aged wines. It can take many years for vintage Ports to become smooth if they have some tannin when they are bottled.
Ruby Ports are generally young wines that have had the chance to assimilate the brandy which was added during fermentation, but have not lost their youthful ruby-red color. Fruity on the nose and with the vitality of young wines, they tend to be very fresh in the mouth. They are an average of 2 years old.
Tawny Ports are aged a long time in wooden barrels, spending 3 or 4 years in casks. They tend to lose most of their fruit and the normal deep red color becomes more of an amber hue (which gives the wine its name) and acquire a nutty character. They should be very smooth when bottled. These may be wines whose bouquet has some trace of the young wines, but also many of the characteristics of Dated Ports or Ports with an indication of age, or "Ports of the Vintage".
Wood Ports represent the finest of Ports. They have been exclusively aged in barrel and not in bottle like Vintage Port.
White Ports: there are several styles of White Port, namely those associated with different degrees of sweetness and the manner by which they are made. In addition to the traditional styles, there are those with a very floral and highly complex nose and a minimum alcohol content of 16.5% (Light Dry White Port), of interest to those who are looking for a less alcoholic Port.
Tasting Port is a completely unique and different process than tasting wine. This is primarily due to the high alcohol content. Please use the following easy instructions for tasting port:
A good glass of port is clear and bright. The color is darkest in the center of the glass and lighter at the rim.
A Ruby port will have a brown color at the rim where the wine curves up the glass. In this case the browner the rim the more mature the wine. Tawny port is usually a reddish brown. White ports can vary between the brown of a Tawny port to a very pale yellow.
Vintage port is very dark, almost black, when young but matures to a slight garnet color.
The next step in your enjoyment of port is the bouquet, or aroma. Gently swirl the wine in the glass (this is why the properly-poured glass isn't full). Now "nose" the wine, inhaling the air from the top of the glass. The smell should be very appealing and will vary with the type. Red ports are fruity and tawnies more nutty in aroma. There should be no mustiness or vinegar smell.
Tasting the wine should confirm what you have smelled in the bouquet. Sip the wine, slosh it around in your mouth (this is not considered impolite in wine tasting circles), and inhale a little air through your mouth while holding the port on your tongue. This makes sure you get all the flavors available. Strictly speaking the wine should be spat out at this point. But if this is a dinner party not a wine tasting, please enjoy it!
