For The Love Of Port

What port would you serve with gingerbread?

I’m not talking about that dry tasteless stuff you get at a store. This gingerbread is deep, dark, spicy, sweet, moist and needs something sweet that can hold its own against all of the flavors. This Gingerbread is made with lots of fresh ginger, fresh cardamom, freshly ground cinnamon, nutmeg, dark molasses, and oatmeal stout.

Ok, here are the choices:
1953 Royal Oporto
2003 Fonseca LBV
2000 Smith Woodhouse LBV
2007 Noval VP
1980 Smith Woodhouse VP

We will be going a wassailing Friday night and want to expand the group’s Port horizons.

I'd serve the '07 Noval VP. I think you're going to need something young and powerful to stand up to all that ginger and molasses.

I would not serve the '53 Royal Oporto. It's an amazing Colheita that deserves to be served on its own. It might pair just fine, but I think you want to be able to savor every nuance of that Port and not have it affected by strong food.

Glenn E. wrote:I would not serve the '53 Royal Oporto. It's an amazing Colheita that deserves to be served on its own. It might pair just fine, but I think you want to be able to savor every nuance of that Port and not have it affected by strong food.

I knew we could count on Mr. Tawny to defend the RO '53!

Looking through Cellartracker this morning I found another possibility in our cellar as well - a 2005 Noval LBV. Youthful, powerful and inexpensive!

I'd go with the 2005 Noval LBV for the reasons Glenn mentioned.

Carl D wrote:Looking through Cellartracker this morning I found another possibility in our cellar as well - a 2005 Noval LBV. Youthful, powerful and inexpensive!

Which one? I think that 2005 is the year that Noval made both their normal LBV and a special "single Quinta" LBV.

I only know this because I have some leftovers of the single Quinta LBV sitting here waiting for me to write a tasting note.

Glenn E. wrote:

Carl D wrote:Looking through Cellartracker this morning I found another possibility in our cellar as well - a 2005 Noval LBV. Youthful, powerful and inexpensive!

Which one? I think that 2005 is the year that Noval made both their normal LBV and a special "single Quinta" LBV.

I only know this because I have some leftovers of the single Quinta LBV sitting here waiting for me to write a tasting note.

or "single vineyard" even!!

I'd go for the Noval 07. Speaking honestly, I'm not sure the Noval 05 LBV (or Quinta do Noval single vineyard 05 LBV!) would convert me to port or expand my port horizons. Whereas the Noval 07 (in my limited experience) is a beauty up there with the top wines of any region. The concentration and acidity of an old Colheita might also be nice in terms of cutting through the soft doughy sweetness of the gingerbread. How many of there are you...and could you serve both?!

Glenn E. wrote:
Which one? I think that 2005 is the year that Noval made both their normal LBV and a special "single Quinta" LBV.

I only know this because I have some leftovers of the single Quinta LBV sitting here waiting for me to write a tasting note.

I'm not sure! I'll have to pull one of the bottles out and check. If I had to guess, I'd say it's the normal LBV. It's whichever one Wine Exchange down in Andy's neck of the woods had piles of back in October.

Rob C. wrote:or "single vineyard" even!!

Oops, so it is. I just wrote up a tasting note on it.

I agree with Rob - go with the 2007 VP over the 2005 LBV. Knock their socks off!

Glenn E. wrote:I agree with Rob - go with the 2007 VP over the 2005 LBV. Knock their socks off!

For the record, the 2005 LBVs that we have are the Single Vineyard variety.

The 2007 is now in decanter. It'll ony get a couple hours, but it's better than nothing. Naturally, we tried a small amount pop-n-pour - yummy!

Rob C. wrote:How many of there are you...and could you serve both?!

We talked about both, but decided to limit it to one bottle for budgetary considerations. I'm itching to open the RO '53 though - we had a taste of it at the FTLOP anniversary party this summer (compliments of Sandy Becker - thanks!) so I know it's got a lot to offer.

Carl D wrote: Naturally, we tried a small amount pop-n-pour - yummy!

yummy =

The nose on the cork alone was deep and complicated. Think of a deep complicated big red Cab mixed with the super fruitiness of a ruby port. While the nose piqued the interest, the pallet sample (even from a popNpour) did not disappoint and made me wonder how nice this would be in 20 to 30 years.

Gingerbread is in the oven and smelling heavenly.

Thanks to all for the suggestions!

We'll see if we've made a new Port convert - we did get several "Wow, that's GOOD" responses from various guests in any case! The Noval '07 was wonderful - with and without the Gingerbread. We still have a small amount left to finish up tonight. Just wishing we'd bought more bottles when we got these 6, at a fair bit better price than anything on wine-searcher right now.

I am newly excited about all my 2007 QdV Silvals. It would be cool to taste one of those, some of the LBVs, and the VP side by side.

Carl/Phyllis,

Not trying to be a contrarian, but purely for the sake of food pairing ... I'd pick the 1953 or any other wood-aged Port over any other LBV/VP in your list. I think a Ruby style Port would not taste nearly as good as a Tawny, Colheita etc. that wouldn't overpower the spiciness of the gingerbread. The dessicated and torrefacted flavors found in wood aged Ports would highlight the spice, as I enjoy them with pumpkin bread, although I realize that is not as highly spiced as gingerbread.

Roy Hersh wrote:Carl/Phyllis,

Not trying to be a contrarian, but purely for the sake of food pairing ... I'd pick the 1953 or any other wood-aged Port over any other LBV/VP in your list. I think a Ruby style Port would not taste nearly as good as a Tawny, Colheita etc. that wouldn't overpower the spiciness of the gingerbread. The dessicated and torrefacted flavors found in wood aged Ports would highlight the spice, as I enjoy them with pumpkin bread, although I realize that is not as highly spiced as gingerbread.

I think the RO '53 would have been awesome - as would any of the old colheitas in our cellar. In the end, we really wanted to try the '07 Noval, having just acquired several bottles and we were hesitant to pop something as pricey as the RO '53 with an unknown crowd. Now our plan is to pop the RO '53 on New Years eve - somewhere between dinner and midnight.