For The Love Of Port

Has anybody seen a good online resource listing Port friendly restaurants or bars in various cities? I usually don't drink enough at any one time to justify a full 750 ml bottle of anything so buying good vintage port by the glass or half bottle would make more sense for me. It seems as though only the most recent vintages are easy to find in 375 ml bottles

Port bars, half bottles, or port tastings would make it easier for me to sample a wider variety and get to know what I like. Is there a good resource of upcoming port tastings?

Part of the reason I really like Aged Tawny ports is they last a long time open.

Check out the "Plainfield's Mayur/Vintage Madeira by the Glass -Where Else?" post I left over on the Madeira Forum. I discuss three restaurants that serve Vintage Madeira by the glass (in 1-oz pours), and two of these restaurants also offer Vintage Port by the glass.

I'm not sure how they protect the Port (which doesn't keep forever like Madeira does) once its opened, though - perhaps with some kind of CO2 system?

LaSalette, a Portugese restaurant in Sonoma, CA is also supposed to be "Port-friendly", albeit without the extensive stocks of old wine that the restaurants I discussed have.

Peter

There's a place in NYC called "Alfama", in the West Village. I haven't been there yet but it's on my to-do list. Their port list seems extensive!

http://www.alfamarestaurant.com/wines/portwine.shtml

David,

Do you have any specific cities in mind? I can point you in a few directions in a tiny handful of cities that I have had the chance to explore.

Alex

Anyone know of any places in southern california

I am most interested in port-friendly restaurants/bars in the CA Bay Area or Gulf coast. I think it would be interesting to know of such restaurants anywhere in case I find myself there or could research any areas to which I might travel.

This is why it would be nice if EVERYBODY included their location along with their real name in their posts, by incorporating that information into their personal profiles.

Bay Area / Gulf Coast are not parts of the world that I can help with. I will be back in San Francisco sometime - probably not for a couple of years though.

Alex

The Sundance steakhouse in Palo Alto http://sundancethesteakhouse.com/ has a decent selection of ports on their menu: rubies, aged tawnies, LBVs and a few vintage ports.

For a dessert after dinner, I ordered a glass of the Dow 20 year tawny (since a tawny could better tolerate already being opened than a vintage port could) and saw the bartender open a bottle. When the waitress brought me the glass, I thought it looked too dark for a 20 year tawney. I later went to the bar and asked the bartender whether he had just opened a bottle of port and asked to see it. He had mistakenly opened the bottle and poured a glass of the 1983 Dow VP.... It was very good and since it had just been opened it had not oxidized.

Following up again to my own post, there is a Portuguese restaurant near Houston, Texas called A Taste of Portugal that has several ports (as well as other Portuguese Wines like Vinho Verde) on the wine list. The owner/chef is Portuguese and just recently moved to the US.