White is made from white grapes and can be sweet or dry. Ruby is made from grapes that span several harvests and is aged in wooden barrels for at least 3 years. Tawny is similar to ruby port, but it is aged for up to 40 years or more. Crusted is also similar to ruby, but does not go through the filtering process, which gives it a crust of sediments that develop in the bottle over time. Late-bottled vintage, or LBV, is made from grapes harvested in only 1 year and aged for 4 to 6 years. Single quinta is made the same way as LBV, but features grapes only taken from 1 estate, or quinta. Colheita is a tawny port, but it is made from only 1 year’s grapes and from 1 estate. Vintage, considered the cream of the port crop, is a single-harvest port aged only 2 to 3 years and set to age unfiltered. The winemaker must determine that the harvest was exceptional, and that the port will be exquisite. Then, the winemaker declares that year a vintage, and vintage port is made. As a result, vintage port tends to be an expensive rarity.
