For The Love Of Port

I had this wine today with duck:

Smith-Woodhouse LBV 1995

48 months in oak, bottled in 1999. Released on the market in Norway in 2007.

Color: Dark red with some dark brown showing, deep.

Nose: Prunes, raisins, mature black plum, spices, very peppery, mushrooms, slightly of noble wood, some eteric oils, dark chocolate.

Palate: Full bodied, very good balanced, good structure, tannins still distinct but fine, super smooth, slightly oily texture, fruit and aromas as above, very long finish, oak and alcohol totaly
integrated. Sweet.

Foodmatch: Game with port sauce. Cheese.

Cellaring: 0-15 years or more.

I am impressed, this is gold. So balanced and smooth.


I made perfect pink duck breasts, perfect, perfect.

Served with:
Forrest mushrooms fried in real ecological butter from Røros, Norway, some salt and pepper.

Small shallot onions fried also in very little butter and half a teaspoon of honey, salt, pepper until soft and golden.

Potatoe puré made with first class potatoes, butter, full cream, salt pepper and herbs.

Port and orange sauce:
I started with making a light colored roux, adding duck stock, then fresh orange juice, then a teaspoon of honey, then some ruby portwine, salt and pepper. I reduce the sauce and made some small ajustmenst in the end.


The Smith-Woodhouse LBV 1995 was awsome with this food.

Fortified wines exported from Portugal to England in the old days, actualy developed many, many dishes with game, and lamb that was quite sweet, they used a lot of fruit. All this to make the food go with the sweet wines from Portugal.

Sounds like quite the meal... Good for you.

Try smoked duck with VP -it's a match made in heaven

Smoked or not - this sounds like a great food match!

I used to think port & blue cheese until I tried the smoked duck... WOW The flavors of the smoke with the dark fruit really work well and the fat in the duck meat hold up to the extraction and the alcohol of the port. I haven't tried Chinese BBQ style duck but i am willing to guess that that will work well too...

Thanks Bjorn for a food pairing topic, which I love.

I've tried duck and cover together and it is quite an experience!

But how many of you really like to experiment with Portuguese dessert wines with their culinary talents?

How about Sercial Madeira and Southern Fried chicken?

Smoked Quail in a Port reduction? Great with LBV

Wild Pheasant and Verdelho? Yummy

Partridge in a pear tree; the Bartlett pear is poached in Port, preferably a proper Ruby Reserve.

And for Luc in Canada .. a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich with a great young VP. No, I am not kidding. It is fabulous!

Roy Hersh wrote:...a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich with a great young VP. No, I am not kidding. It is fabulous!

I can see this also working with a nice tawny as well, given the dried fruit and nutty character of the wine. I'll have to do more research the next time my two year old breaks out a PB&J sandwich. :)

We ate Speck with our weekly port gluttony. The two of us finished off;

1977 Fonseca, 1977 Calem, and 1982 Sandeman. The ’77 Fonseca was decanted back into bottle for two days and was perfect- perhaps the best ’77 I have ever had. I wish I could say the same for the Calem. The Calem had an odd cloudy tawny color (the cork and seal looked fine) and an alcoholic taste. The ’82 Sandeman was quite good to my surprise as I have had no luck with Sandeman up until now.

Paul D.
I will for sure try port with smoked duck, maybe it will be a good match for other smoked food aslo, preferably red meat.

Roy.
Many interesting combinations.


Thanks.

I found a great recipe in one of the BBC magazines some years back for a venison with drunken prunes (the prunes drunk in port). the port definately adds to the complexity of the sauce and on a cold day it is fantastic with bashed neaps and some form of potato. Obviously port is the fitting finale. If interested I am sure I can dig up a link or post my take on it.

Adam.
Great idea with prunes drunk in port as a garnish or maybe part of a stuffing, desserts etc...
Thanks.

I really like poultry with Port sauce. I have never tried it with duck but it sounds like a great idea. I will do it! The first wine dinner I ever went to was in 1979 with my wife just after my first son was born (our first day out after the birth). It was a pot luck wine dinner and we brought a dish of chicken stuffed with veal and allspice in a peach and port reduction sauce. Got it from a Great restaurant chefs cookbook I still have. Breast of duck with that sauce would be fantastic.

Anyone has tryed the "Pêra Bebeda" (Drunked Pear)?

In Portugal this desert is made with Red Wine or with Ruby Porto.

Consists in Pear with Port/Red Wine all over and goes to owen.

João Rico

João.
I have been in Portugal several times in my life, but never seen this dessert. What is it served with? Cream, cheese, icecream or....

Lo siento João.
I didnt see that it was pear.
Yes in Norway we serve this dessert, we serve it with cream or icecream.

I have promoted this one before, but mostly drew negative reactions: Really young peppery and tannic VP is the only match I know of for pepper steak with green pepper sauce. Try it.

Ole Udsen wrote:I have promoted this one before, but mostly drew negative reactions: Really young peppery and tannic VP is the only match I know of for pepper steak with green pepper sauce. Try it.

You would get positive reaction from me Ole - that sounds very good. I can also see using a bit of unfiltered LBV (a harsher one) or even a peppery Ruby for the same sauce.

Oh man, this is making me hungry!

Todd

Hello all.
This only shows how diffucult it is to pair wine with food.
I describe the sauce quite accurate, but the sauce in real life has more aromas of orange and honey than port. The sauce has just a touch of port. Thats why the LBV that I chose is a better choice.
I agree that if the sauce was made with a lot of port, that dominated the sauce, you would need a tougher port.

I have about 50 phonecalls in my work every day about pairing wine with food. Imagine how difficult it is when they say, I will make a port sauce!?

It is endless of ways that people makes a port sauce, so we just have to make a good guess for the wine pairing.

After reading this thread I am quite eager to try duck and Port. In the past I have had success with viognier and duck, or even better, Sauterne and duck.

Jay

Jay.
We made at work duck with an orangesauce, made with stock, orange, some orangepeel, and honey. For many a Sauternes or Tokaji will be to sweet, but it pairs quite well for sweettooths.

Ole Udsen. Are you danish? I see that you live in Kazakstan, is this correct? If it is, how is the wine there, and the winestores?