How long has it been since you've ordered Port in a restaurant?

[Glenn E.]

I had a glass of Royal Oporto 20-yr old Tawny at Fraser's Gourmet Hideaway in Oak Harbor this weekend.

Fantastic restaurant. Scott Fraser is the chef and he's done an incredible job. He's also one of the principles of the Oak Harbor Pig Fest, which is why I was in Oak Harbor for the weekend, and despite working all day keeping the Pig Fest running and catering to the needs of the competition BBQ teams, when we showed up at his restaurant for dinner he was already there cooking away in the kitchen!

Highly recommended. Probably even worth the 2-hour drive to Oak Harbor from Seattle just for dinner... great views and great food!

[Miguel Simoes]

Last was a glass of Royal Oporto 40 Year Old in Newark, NJ about a week ago.
I end up ordering Port at restaurants fairly often. It is the perfect cap to a yummy meal and having it there on the spot works for me.
Have had a number of disappointments where the wine wasnt drinkable anymore. In the end, I have learned to go for tawnies and colheitas, only venturing into VP at the nicer restaurants where I know they go through them in a matter of days.

[Ricardo D]

Two weeks ago on a ferry between Oslo and Danmark. Cockburns Special Reserve. When getting the glass served i got really suspicious.'' This i not what port or wine for that matter should look like'' i thought. But never having tasted anything else than Osborne 10 yo tawny i gave it a try. Wrong! The bartender should have noticed this. it was completely off. He opened a new bottle and apoligised. ''We do not get so many requests for port'' he explained.

[Andy Velebil]

Two weeks ago on a ferry between Oslo and Danmark. Cockburns Special Reserve. When getting the glass served i got really suspicious.'' This i not what port or wine for that matter should look like'' i thought. But never having tasted anything else than Osborne 10 yo tawny i gave it a try. Wrong! The bartender should have noticed this. it was completely off. He opened a new bottle and apoligised. ''We do not get so many requests for port'' he explained.

Hi Ricardo,
Let me first welcome you to the Forum

I think it's great they had Port on the ferry. I can hardly find it at most restaurants here. Now if only I can get work to change their rules....

[Ricardo D]

Well, everywhere port is being served i have to try. I'm quite new to this and have a lot of tasting and discovering ahead of me.
A few weeks ago, at a Dinnershow they had this Quinto do Noval Black on the winelist. Really nice!
Before i went home i had to go to the bar and asked to see the bottle. It was almost empty. So here they served port on a regular basis i thought as in
contradiction to my earlier posted comment.

[John F. Newman]

On or about April 30, I had port in "down neck" Newark, NJ with John M. Since then, I've ordered port probably twice. It been a miss. the waiters and bartenders just aren't educated on the subject, and therefore I assume neither are their clientele.

[Alan McDonald]

Last month in Lisbon. The first time my wife and I had been out to dinner since July 2010. An international hotel chain, known as Tryp in Portugal, and their hotel near the Oriente station. It was an unscheduled stayover and we had to bed down nearby. The food was excellent, and the service too, but I asked for a Ruby and was shown the list (not the wine list but a separate one) showing "normal" and one or two not so special individual bottles - no VP. I repeated my request for a double measure of Ruby and was brought a fairly non descript Tawny, at €9 for a double measure!! I repeat the food and the service were excellent, but the knowledge of Port was non existent.

[Andy Velebil]

Last month in Lisbon. The first time my wife and I had been out to dinner since July 2010. An international hotel chain, known as Tryp in Portugal, and their hotel near the Oriente station. It was an unscheduled stayover and we had to bed down nearby. The food was excellent, and the service too, but I asked for a Ruby and was shown the list (not the wine list but a separate one) showing "normal" and one or two not so special individual bottles - no VP. I repeated my request for a double measure of Ruby and was brought a fairly non descript Tawny, at €9 for a double measure!! I repeat the food and the service were excellent, but the knowledge of Port was non existent.

Sadly, seems to be the same in most places. I'm always amazed of two things, poor wine knowledge by the staff at an establishment that serves wine and why they put Port on a different wine list where no one sees it because most people don't know to ask for the "other" wine list.

[Eric Menchen]

I had a similar situation with a different dessert wine at a restaurant recently. The menu listing for a Tokaji was incomplete, so I asked the waitress how many puttonyos it was. "What?" I politely asked her to go find the bottle and come back with a number. She did, it was 5, and it was quite tasty.

[Al B.]

Since we started this thread 4 years ago, the choice of restaurants serving Port (or Sherry or Madeira) in London has grown. There are a couple of spots me and our Port group frequent, with good Port lists but also with sympathetic corkage policies (if negotiated in advance).

My two go to places are:
The Boot & Flogger, part of the Davy's chain of 20-odd restaurants. Good steaks if you pre-order; decent steaks if you don't pre-order. They offer things like

• Henriques & Henriques Special Dry 3 Year Old Madeira @ £3.90 ($5.50) for 50ml,
• Blandy's Alvada @ £5.70,
• Cossart Bual 1958 @ £180.oo per bottle,
• Leacock Sercial 1950 @ £215,
• Blandy's Bual 1920 @ £700 or for Port lovers there's
• Davy's Own Label Reserve @ £3.55 for 50ml,
• Graham’s Fine White Port @ £2.90,
• Quinta da Silveira 10yr old Tawny @ £5.50,
• Graham 10yr old tawny from 4.5 litre jeroboam,
• Graham 20yr old tawny from 4.5 litre jeroboam,
• Offley Boa Vista 2000 @ £7.00,
• Dow 1994 by the glass or bottle,
• Taylor 1997 by the glass or bottle, (I forget how much these last two are but the bottles are drunk through or thrown away after a week),
• Taylor 1966 @ £250.

The other go to place of mine is Bar Douro. This is Max Graham's restaurant (the son of Johnny Graham of Churchill Port) and it's jolly good. The food is excellent and the wine / fortified wine list excellent. Their wine list includes fortifieds such as

• Churchill's Reserve Port NV £5 for 100ml or £34 for the bottle,
• Churchill's White Port (500 ml) NV £8/£40,
• Churchill's 10yo Tawny Port (500 ml) NV £9/£45,
• Churchill's Late Bottled Vintage Port 2011 £7/£46,
• Churchill's 20yo tawny port (500 ml) NV £62,
• Churchill's 'Quinta da Gricha' Single Quinta Vintage Port 2012 £86,
• Churchill's Vintage Port 1997 £14/£105,
• Morgan Brothers' 1991 £115,
• Fonseca Guimaraens 1988 £185,
• Dow's Vintage Port 1985 £155,
• Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 1982 £145,
• Warres Vintage Port 1975 £140,
• Fonseca 1970 £300,
• Warre 1970 £210,
• Gould Campbell 1966 £250,
• Taylors Vintage Port 1966 £275,
• Taylors Vintage Port 1963 £310,
• Gonzalez Byass 1955 £380,
• Horácio Simões, Moscatel de Setúbal 2014 £50,
• Blandy's 10yo Malmsey NV £50,
• Villa Oeiras NV £79

[Scheiny S]

what is Blandy's Alvada?

how does one negotiate in advance for 'sympathetic corkage fee'? i've balked at doing a tasting somewhere BYO because of corkage fees. any advice will be appreciated. thanks!

[Eric Menchen]

what is Blandy's Alvada?
how does one negotiate in advance for 'sympathetic corkage fee'? i've balked at doing a tasting somewhere BYO because of corkage fees. any advice will be appreciated. thanks!

You are fortunate that PA allows corkage. It isn't an option for me in Colorado, nor in Texas ...

From my experience at tastings on the west coast, restaurants are more willing to charge little to no corkage if you're willing to commit to a group size and minimum food charge. That way they know it is worthwhile for them to host you even without the alcohol profit.

[Eric Ifune]

Alvada is a five year old blend of Malvasia and Boal. It's done well commercially.

[Roy Hersh]

I sat here trying to remember the last time I ordered Port wine in a USA restaurant and know that it was pre-2002. How long before that would be just a random guess.

In Portugal, that is obviously a very different story, as I do purchase whole bottles, every year and in Port bars even by the glass on occasion.

[Andy Velebil]

I sat here trying to remember the last time I ordered Port wine in a USA restaurant and know that it was pre-2002. How long before that would be just a random guess.

In Portugal, that is obviously a very different story, as I do purchase whole bottles, every year and in Port bars even by the glass on occasion.

I can't recall here in the States it's been so long. In Portugal, I am the same. I order bottles or glasses all the time. Of course, the pricing there is FAR more reasonable than it is here. I've seen Six Grapes for $18 for a 1.5 ounce pour. That's more than a bottle of it at retail. As a side, I had a long discussion with a Somm about why they don't sell more Port at their restaurant. Pricing was one of the biggest issues I brought up. Bring it down to a reasonable markup and sell more of it. It's pretty simple.