Ted has a point, though IMHO an unnecessarily restrictive one.

The original Port, made in Portugal, was made by fortifying a sweet wine
with distilled grape alcohol, i.e. brandy. Back in those days in
Portugal, there weren't yeasts available that were capable of delivering
18-19% alcohol wines.

In today's understanding, a port wine is more broadly taken to mean a
sweet dessert wine with high alcohol content. We have available yeasts
that can deliver that high alcohol in the primary fermentation. We no
longer have to depend on distilled grape spirits to achieve the desired
product.

Gene

Franco wrote:
> You are confused, ted.
>
>
>
>
> wrote:
>
>>I hate to be a purist, but, if it is not fortified with neutral spirit
>>(from grapes)) it is not Port. It is high alcohol wine.
>>ted
>>
>>Franco wrote:
>>
>>>I am interested in making a batch of port the non-fortified way (I want
>>>to make it by adding sugar until the alcohol level is high enough). I'm
>>>not interested in a particular recipe as much as in figuring out some
>>>general guidelines for making port out of different types of fruit. By
>>>reading older posts on the subject of port, I gathered the following
>>>information:
>>>
>>>"Simplest way to do it is to start with your must around 1.120 using EC
>>>1116, KV 1116 or Premier Cuvee yeast.
>>>
>>>When the SG drops to about 1.010, add enough sugar syrup to increase
>>>the SG to 1.020. Do this a couple of times (or until the yeast fails)
>>>and you will be in the alcohol range of about 18 to 20%.
>>>
>>>Sweeten it to about 1.020 SG, and either fortify with a brandy or
>>>neutral spirit if desired or bottle it and let it age for a year or
>>>two."
>>>
>>>
>>>OK, a few questions:
>>>
>>>1) What should be a good range of TA before fermentation starts?
>>>
>>>2) What about tannin extraction? Is it better to press early or late?
>>>
>>>3) Out of curiosity, has anybody ever tried chaptalizing (I think
>>>that's the right term for the gradual addition of sugar) with grape
>>>concentrate instead of just sugar? Good or bad idea? How about using
>>>inverted sugar instead of regular sugar? Does it matter one way or
>>>another?
>>>
>>>4) What levels of free SO2 should we have when we bottle it?
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.
>
>