Why are port grapes crushed between your toes

A.� Port grapes are gradually squashed between toes, not just to release the juice, but to coax the colour, flavour and tannins out of their thick black skins.

�

Fine port should be rich and powerful, with a firm structure, so port producers say it's important to push out lots of the extract with the soles of the feet. The whole business may seem archaic, but there is evidence to show that foot-crushed grapes produce slightly better port than machine-crushed ones. Recent research, commissioned by Taylor's, concluded that foot-treading was more effective than the latest piston plungers.

�

The reason the feet do so well is because they do the job relatively slowly, gently massaging the grapes. Only a tiny amount of port, however, is made in this way - in fact, only two per cent of the port made each year is foot-trodden because it's an expensive, labour-intensive option.

�

Most of this port production is carried out in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal. Most traditional wineries are equipped with lagares - stone baths as big as a room, where the grapes are trodden. The process can take hours.

�

Q.� Is it hygenic

A.� Firstly, it's a tradition that has lasted for centuries, with no ill effects. By the time the juice is fermented and fortified, it's impossible to catch anything. In the Douro, the port houses are particularly proud of their foot-trodden products, and port lovers say some of the finest vintage ports are produced in this manner.

�

Q.� What are the main styles of port

A.� Vintage port is complex, dark and intensely flavoured. It often needs many years of cellaring to soften and mellow. It is only made in better years, two or three times a decade, when a port house officially declares a vintage. It is bottled after two years in barrels and is unfilted.

�

Tawny ports have an amber-brown colour and a nutty flavour with hints of dried fruit. This character comes from long ageing in oak barrels - up to 20 years or more.

�

Late-bottled Vintage is port from a single year, aged for longer before bottling, around 4-6 years after the vintage.

�

Single Quinta is the product of one particular estate (quinta) which provides the main source of the company's vintage port.

�

Ruby is inexpensive young port that should be drunk while young.

�

For more food and drink questions and answers, click here

�

By Katharine MacColl

�

�