For The Love Of Port

(7/19/2010)
Someone who I had been discussing Port with stopped by. He had a bottle of this Tawny saying that he found it at Trader Joe's for $6 per bottle. I offered him a bottle of Ferreira 20 to try along side, and he gave me the Morgado bottle intending to get another for his side-by-side. (This has to be considered simultaneous gifts; I couldn't bear to have anyone think I make 10:1 trades on the losing side.)

Our Monday Night movie group (which includes most of the Gang of Port) sampled this (extensively; there's about an ounce left) alongside another bottle of Ferreira 20 plus the week-open tail end of one of my remaining bottles of Nimrod. The consensus was that while the Morgado had no particular flaws or unpleasant tastes, it just wasn't as interesting as the better tawnies. One person felt that there was a slightly bitter after-taste; most of us thought there was just no finish at all.

Eminently drinkable (unlike many inexpensive tawnies), but nothing to rave about. At $6, extremely good value.

Interesting! I'll have to grab some from TJs while it's still there.

I do not mean this to sound snobby or in any way disparaging. But I love to cook with Tawny Port and Pedro Ximenez (Sherry) and am always thankful to find one that is affordable and this sounds like a great deal. I am sure I'll sip some too. Thanks Peter for pointing us in the right direction.

It's an entry-level port. Excellent for where you want to make a port-reduction sauce. The cooking would drive off all the subtile flavors anyway. Why pay $50 for something that will go up the chimney?

Similarly, if you are "drinking distracted": if you aren't paying attention to all the great characteristics of a good port while watching a movie or reading, then a simple port should be perfectly adequate. The Morgado has the virtue, for an inexpensive port, of not having any "off" tastes that I noticed.

To be fair, this is the first inexpensive "port" I have tasted which is actually true port from Portugal. The others have been US or Australian fortified wines, some of which were labeled as port, but more recently not.

I've had this before and agree that it's nothing flashy, but it is a good QPR for less than $10. Here is my last TN of it three years ago CLICK HERE

Interesting notes here. I was at Trader Joe's last night, and decided to take the plunge and buy a bottle, but since my wallet was feeling fat, I decided I could splurge for a couple extra bucks ($11 in total) for the 10 Year Tawny Morgado, though I had heard from someone that their $6.50 Ruby wasn't too bad. Once I open it, I will post some tasting notes.

Speaking of tawnies, I had the Offley 1997 Colheita that I got at Total Wine. I was saving it for a party with some visitors from Germany. Unlike the homebrew that I made and played down as mediocre, I hyped this as probably being good. They really enjoyed the homebrew and were (politely) disappointed with this Colheita (as was I). And at $40 the QPR was really low...

Jeremy

Just following up on this. I opened the Morgado 10 Year Tawny I got at Trader Joe's for $10.99 right before Thanksgiving. I was sufficiently lazy (read: half in the bag) during my two tastings around the holiday weekend to take any real notes, but I must say, I was sufficiently impressed. Close in quality in my mind to Romariz Reserva Latina and Quinta de Ventozelo 10 Year Tawny, but both were much closer to the $20 range. It definitely felt worthy of the indication of age tawny, and to my untrained palate, almost middle of the road for a 10 year. Great QPR. .