Libations
We Never Met a Port We Didn’t Like
More than a delicious dessert wine
By Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer
It might have happened this way:
Portugal, 17th century: A winemaker is in
despair because he has had a poor harvest of grapes and his wife is
yelling at him because the children need shoes. How are they going
to live with so little to sell? He helps himself to a swig of brandy
to calm his nerves. As the liquid awakens all the little taste buds
in his mouth, it also activates creative brain cells. Before he
thinks about it too much, he pours brandy into one small keg of the
young wine. He tosses the keg in the back of somewhere and forgets
about it. In rediscovering the keg, something magical has happened,
something delicious, something that will command a higher price.
Little does he know that monks in
monasteries had secretly been adding brandy to their wine to
increase the alcoholic content. No doubt this helped with hot
flashes.
How England began drinking port wine
In other parts of Europe, England was
having another squawk with France and blockaded their ports where
French wine was sent out. But my goodness, they forgot something:
What to drink now? What will we do? We will man our ships and sail
to Portugal and buy their products. We are friends with Portugal.
We love this story for it illustrates clearly a wonderful adage
about how success is achieved - It is a matter of Opportunity
meeting Preparedness. Thus the port wine industry in Portugal
got off to a rousing start, and the English became a nation of port
lovers. (We could hazard a guess that some smugglers were quite busy
at the time making sure certain Englishmen would not go without
their precious French champagne or their Bordeaux wines. It is a
curious human trait that once you think you can’t have something,
you go crazy for it.)
Have some fun
But on to modern times. Be brave. Go buy
some port. Don’t know what you like? You have to start somewhere.
Pick some. Invite a few people and have your own blind tasting. We
did this recently on the spur of the moment using what we had on
hand. We all pooled our resources and came up with cheddar, blue,
Danish blue, edam cheeses and some excellent pate. We had a total of
5 bottles. A delicious walnut bread from Trader Joe’s was perfect
with the cheeses and the ports. Dianne lit candles in a candelabra,
hid the bottles in paper bags and set out a big pitcher of water for
palate cleansing. A very pleasant evening ensued. No arguments or
issues. Port wine does give you a sense of well being.
One guest is a doctor who applies
his scientific training to the study of wine glasses. He brought two
glasses similar in style with a more closed shape at the top. but
one was a Riedel hand made glass. He made us taste from them
and the other types of glasses present. I promise you, the harmony,
balance and fortified character of the wine came out in a
magnificent way drinking from the Riedel glass.
Here is what we blind tasted:
* Clifton Bay Port South Africa
* Graham’s Vintage Port Portugal
* Quady Starboard Vintage 1992 California
* Quady LBV 1993
California
* Sandeman Founders Reserve Portugal
Since our opinions are completely subjective we will restate from
the beginning: we never met a port we didn’t like.
Serving Port; Port recipe
Serve in an attractive glass for a great
aperitif. The French sometimes chill it. (Well now, you know
attractive glasses should always be used even if you are drinking by
yourself. Appearance has always been known to improve taste. TIP:
check out the Goodwill Stores for inexpensive interesting glassware.
Who knows? You might find a Riedel.) On one occasion during a
hot summer visit in the Cahors region in France, our hostess
suggested we get into the pool with port-over-ice drinks in our
hand. Wonderful!
Recipe, no cooking!: Soak prunes
in port for a few days in the refrigerator. Serve plain or with
vanilla ice cream or you could be really naughty and choose
chocolate ice cream. (Prunes soaked in orange juice produce good
results, too.)
Here is another great idea for you and your friends
For many years our friend, Ben, has done a
Bridge Walk on New Year’s Day. It is very casual and easy to
organize. The idea is to meet at the South end with delectables and
favorite bottles of port, then walk across to the other side and
have a picnic. The port wine is especially nice with this wintertime
activity.
Hot Tip about sparkling wine
Barefoot Bubbly, a Northern California
product, is the only 100% Chardonnay sparkling wine on the market
under $10. It is delicious. We watched 200 guests at a recent
reception in the Green Room at Herbst Theater in San Francisco
coming back for seconds and thirds! Available in supermarkets and
wine stores. You won’t be sorry. We keep a bottle chilled at all
times in case of snake bite.
Dianne Boate is a San Francisco based photojournalist. Robert
Meyer is a consultant to the wine and spirits industry. They have
been tasting wines together for 24 years.