For The Love Of Port

For those that prefer SPECIFIC questions, I am talking about main course dishes with Port.

Thanksgiving dinner with an LBV or younger Vintage

Steak with LBV or young VP, though the steak should only be moderately seasoned. Let the beef do the talking, not the seasoning.

Cheesy dishes - mac & cheese, lasagna, etc - with a 20-yr old tawny. Again I prefer to keep the spices down, so go easy on the herbs in the lasagna if that's what you're serving. Depending on the dish I might pick a more acidic Port like the Sandeman 20-yr old or a sweeter one like the Taylor or Graham. The more spirity 20-yr olds like the Ramos Pinto also pair well with cheese in the right dish.

chinese bbq ribs with a young vp

peking duck with a more delicate mature vp

Korean BBQ with a LBV.

Pizza with a young VP or young LBV :)

Andy Velebil wrote:Pizza with a young VP or young LBV :)

what kind of pizza tho?

white clam pizza, margharita, grandma, sicilian, basil and mozz, classical

inquiring minds must know!

Jeff G. wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:Pizza with a young VP or young LBV :)

what kind of pizza tho?

white clam pizza, margharita, grandma, sicilian, basil and mozz, classical

inquiring minds must know!

Pretty much the standard stuff from the local place a few blocks down. Pepperoni, white pearl (cheese and tomato), the works.

As a stretch, try the fresh tomato, mozz, and basil. Skip the balsamic but try a young tannic lbv or vp instead.
Through some garlic bread on the side and it's a good pairing.


I can see the saltiness of the pepperoni with sweetness mixing very well.
Though with the works, wouldn't the flavors get muddled? I usually do champers or beer witht he works.

Jeff G. wrote:As a stretch, try the fresh tomato, mozz, and basil. Skip the balsamic but try a young tannic lbv or vp instead.
Through some garlic bread on the side and it's a good pairing.


I can see the saltiness of the pepperoni with sweetness mixing very well.
Though with the works, wouldn't the flavors get muddled? I usually do champers or beer witht he works.

Will have to try those, thanks for the rec's. As for the works, not my favorite of pizza's but a strong bodied young Ruby does hold up pretty well with it. Although, I don't get anchovies and I tend to leave off (or pick out) the sausage as the spices in it tend to be overtly strong.

Lamb or elk can be tasty with Port. Beef Wellington with a Port reduction sauce with VP. I also made a whole beef tenderloin with a green pepper sauce that goes well with VP. For dessert, goat cheese cheesecake with red wine/grape/walnut compote, and a VP.

Eric,

I am 100% in agreement about Lamb and Elk. Great combination although I possibly prefer lamb with Port, but have done Elk with Port, 2x and both in CO, in fact.

For the more adventurous, a well salted ostrich goes very well with an lbv.

Jeff G. wrote:For the more adventurous, a well salted ostrich goes very well with an lbv.

Gotta say I would have never thought of that one

got a great butcher near my house that specializes first in usda prime beef, but will carry as specials random game meats.

but ostrich is very gamey and lean, so lends perfectly with some butter and port.

Aside from the ubiquitous steak+VP, I had chilli and a Fonseca 2005 LBV which went together very well recently.
(I should admit that I'm not generally an LBV fan, so this might have only been good because it masked the aspect of the LBV that I normally don't like, but I enjoyed it enough to repeat it the following night).

Can white bread and soft castello blue cheese with VP also count as a main course, provided I eat enough of it?

I like game meats with vp or Lbv - so things like venison or kangaroo work well - particularly if using a sweeter sauce for the game meat. I'd favour the slightly drier styles like dows though when pairing port with a main dish.
As the meat gets lighter (ie pheasant or pigeon). I think the port needs to get more delicate so something that was never a blockbuster to start with and with a fair amount of bottle age would work. I'd love to try a proper pigeon bastilla (aka pastilla or bisteeya) with a more delicate aged port.

I have had Springbok, Kudu and Zebra ... all with port wine. I agree game goes very well. These were bottles of So. African port-style of wine, all vintage dated, the meats were all directly cooked in braai.

The all time best port food pairing was veal scallopine in a gorgonzola sauce prepared by a long departed Italian chef "Favio" at the Ft Worth CIty Club circa 2002. That Italian blue cheese sauce and veal with ruby port, I think a 1977 Ferreira ,was unforgetttable.

The first time Robert Bower was here in Seattle (that I knew of) was in 2002 or 2003 and at a swank restaurant downtown, with a group of my tasting group buddies, we had a dinner entirely paired with Port. We had pheasant with a Tawny as the entree and it was fantastic!


In recent times, probably my own favorite pairing has been a powerful young Reserve Ruby with char-grilled Baby Back Ribs and BBQ sauce. Love that tangy pairing. The mild sweetness of the sauce interplays with the Port beautifully and the pork is the near-perfect foil.