There is one fortified wine that captures the spirit of Christmas in a glass and it must be port, writes Clive Platman.

such is the vast range of styles, compounded by confusing labelling, that I guarantee your head will be spinning before you’ve tasted your first drop of port.

To find out a little more, I went over to the Fladgate Partnership, one of the oldest and largest port houses, at its headquarters in Vila Nova de Gaia.

Founded in 1692, the house now owns the brands of Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft’s, and ships the complete range, including vintage, tawny, ruby, late-bottled vintage and white.

Before describing the various styles, it is worth understanding how port is made. After the grapes are pressed, the juice is only allowed to ferment for a few days until the alcohol level has reached 6-8 degrees ABV.

The fermentation is then arrested by the addition of a neutral grape spirit, approximately one-fifth of the volume, in a process known as mutage.

This allows the wine to retain its natural sweetness from the unfermented grape sugar, resulting in a fortified wine between 18-20 degrees.

Essentially, there are two main types of port: rubies and aged-tawnies. Rubies are the cheapest and simplest types as they are seldom aged in cask for more than six years, but generally less, perhaps three or four for the lesser wines.

At worst, a ruby can be coarse and fiery, but at best, polished with upfront spicy red and black-fruit flavours.

To digress, Taylor’s and Fonseca produce a white port, from white grapes.

The fermentation for the Taylor Chip Dry is allowed to continue for longer, to create a drier character.

I was particularly taken with the Fonseca Sirocco, which was a little more elegant, with flavours of pineapple and cream.

A more recent innovation is pink port, and Croft’s Pink shows a deft hand, with flavours of strawberries, pink grapefruit and cream.

For reasons of marketing, rubies are often made to seem much grander than they really are, with names such as Reserve, Special Reserve and Vintage Character.

These terms carry no official standing. The Fonseca Bin 27 is a great example which delivers black fruits and liquorice flavours. I was also impressed by the Fonseca Organic Terra Prima, which had extra freshness and length.