Editing Port wine (section)

===Vintage port===
[[File:Delaforce 1985 Vintage Port - 2020-08-08 - Andy Mabbett - 02.png|thumb|upright=0.5|Delaforce 1985 vintage port]]

Vintage ports may be aged in barrels or stainless steel for a maximum of two and a half years before bottling, and generally require another 10 to 40 years of aging in the bottle before reaching what is considered a proper drinking age. Since they are potentially aged in a cask for only a short time, they retain their dark ruby color and fresh fruit flavours. Particularly fine vintage ports can continue to gain complexity for many decades after they were bottled. It is not uncommon for 19th-century bottles to still be in perfect condition for consumption. The oldest known vintage port still available as of 2018 from a shipper is the 1815 Ferreira.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sotheby's auctions 1815 'Waterloo Vintage' port for record sum|url=https://algarvedailynews.com/news/5555-sotheby-s-auctions-1815-waterloo-vintage-port-for-record-sum|access-date=15 May 2018|work=Algarve Daily News|date=8 May 2015}}</ref> A tasting in 1990 described it as having an "intensely spicy aroma – cinnamon, pepper, and ginger – hints of exotic woods, iodine, and wax".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Alexander|first1=Saffron|title=Rare bottle of port that dates from Battle of Waterloo to be auctioned|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11576938/Rare-bottle-of-port-that-dates-from-Battle-of-Waterloo-to-be-auctioned.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11576938/Rare-bottle-of-port-that-dates-from-Battle-of-Waterloo-to-be-auctioned.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=15 May 2018|work=The Telegraph|publisher=Telegraph Media Group Limited|date=1 May 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Vintage port is made entirely from the grapes of a declared vintage year. While it is by far the most renowned type of port, from a volume and revenue standpoint, vintage port accounts for only about two percent of overall port production. Not every year is declared a vintage in the Douro. The decision on whether to declare a vintage is made early in the second year following the harvest. The decision to declare a vintage is made by each individual port house often referred to as a "shipper".

Much of the complex character of aged vintage port comes from the continued slow decomposition of grape solids in each bottle. These solids are undesirable when the port is consumed, and thus vintage port typically requires a period of settling before decanting and pouring.

====Single quinta vintage port====
Single quinta vintage ports are wines that originate from a single estate, unlike the standard bottlings of the port wine houses which can be sourced from a number of quintas. Single quinta bottlings are used in two ways by producers. Most of the large port wine houses have a single quinta bottling which is only produced in some years when the regular vintage port of the house is not declared. In those years, wine from their best quinta is still bottled under a vintage designation, rather than being used for simpler port qualities.<ref name='Mayson 2015'/>