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:
Published: October, 2003
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.
