For The Love Of Port

I understand it couldn't live at that alcohol concentration, as it gives out around 12%, but I was wondering if it could have been in the source wine before the alcohol level was increased (which now that I think about it, goes against the single bottle consideration). It is found in a lot of Rhône ...

One evening at Vinologia in Porto my wife and I sampled 8 different ports. I thought I tasted Brettanomyces in one of them. I was wondering if this is common in some ports. If not common, did I find an uncommon port, or just a bad bottle? I didn't take notes at the time, so I'm not absolutely sure w...

No MLK Day option to take advantage of the three day weekend? Just a thought.

I'm posting this here since it is more of a travel note than tasting notes. My wife and I were in V.n.d.G. on a day when just about all of the port houses were closed. Walked up the hill to Barros--closed (do they even do tastings up at the main facility?). Across to Taylor's--tasting room and resta...

Realistically, I'm with Glenn on this one.

More imaginatively, I'm thinking I should buy some more ports soon since prices may be down. At the moment I have more confidence that I'll be happy with those investments in the years to come.

Thanks for the welcome Roy. My wife and I took a day trip on a boat up the Douro, so we got to see some of the vineyards, but we didn't manage to actually visit any of them. This was a short, but still very enjoyable, vacation for us. It would be nice to share some fine port when you're in Colorado....

Andy Velebil wrote:Hope you have recovered from the trip? I just got home and its time to lose some weight I put on during it

I hear that. I came back thinking, "Well, we ate pretty healthy, and we walked all over the place. So what did it?" Then I figured it out.

Well, with no hassle at all, Blicker-Pierce-Wagner Wine Merchants came through with a replacement, which I received last night. All looks well. On the subject of online merchants, I ordered six bottles from http://www.planetofwine.com/, which were shipped FedEx without major issues. They seem to be ...

I cut the recipe in half, used one shallot and about 1/4 cup figs. Less figs would have been fine (better?), but all was well. Very tasty indeed. I used Noval Fine Ruby. Mmmmm. No fancy chocolates afterwards, just the grocery store endangered species stuff (72 or 80%). But I'll be at the Great Ameri...

I'm guessing two shallots and maybe six to eight whole figs before quartering. How does that sound Kris? I plan on making this tonight.

I wish. The inside was just about entirely dried out. I think it broke as soon as it left the seller. That or someone else enjoyed it.

Moses Botbol wrote:Actually, I have never had Calem '97

Nor have I, but we liked the LBV and wanted to give this one a try. -Eric

That pork tenderloin recipe inspired me to post about a dinner with ports for which I served two different desserts. I'll take recommendations for future port pairings, but this worked out pretty well: First, dark chocolate and orange tart with toasted almonds . I've made this many times since the r...

I was surprised when I got home this afternoon to find my shipment of two bottles sitting on my front porch. First, UPS doesn't usually come to my house as early as they did. And second, I thought a signature would be required. Well, I guess that driver just wanted to drop that box off and get out o...

Disclaimer: I think this is post #3 for me, and my tasting experience where I really thought about it probably numbers between 50 and 100 tastings. But of those ... I just returned from Porto where I made it a point to taste the 10 year old tawny wherever we went. I tried Calem, Noval, Kopke, and Ta...

Thanks for the welcome. Perhaps I overstated things at Kopke. We didn't dislike what we tasted, but compared to other places, we didn't find anything that we moved us to bring some home. I ordered their 10 yr tawny. My wife was typically ordering older tawnies and some LBVs, and a VP if possible, bu...

Hello from Colorado! This is my first post, and while I'll probably lurk a bit as I just discovered this forum today, hopefully not my last. I'm a software developer to pay the bills, a beer brewer to stay sane, and now someone with a much greater appreciation of port. I've enjoyed a port now and th...