For The Love Of Port

Okay, I need some advice from ya'll. Since I have mentioned in a post or two that I opened a wine bar in Anchorage, and Roy so graciously featured my place several months back in the newsletter, I have learned allot about the Port knowledge of the general public, or lack there of really.

After a tasting later this week, I will be bringing a colheita or two onto the dessert menu (below). I'm not on the floor every evening and not all patrons ask about the dessert wines before ordering. I don't want someone who likes tawnies to avoid the 'Colheita' for lack of knowing what it is. I'd say 99% + of the public has no idea what a Colheita is. SO THE QUESTION IS: Can I list it as "1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita Tawny" ???

Also these related discussions have been had on this forum before about getting more people into port. I think allot of the confusion and difficulty stems from the various "types" of port out there and the difficulty a person in the public has is in exploring a rather expensive bottle of wine not knowing what they are buying. There is Tawny, LBV, Ruby, Vintage, Single Vineyard vintage bottlings, Vintage Character, the ubiquitous Reserve, and then all the esoteric non identified bottlings like Warre's Warrior, etc. A pretty tough road to hull in gaining even a basic understanding of the Port world!

dessert wines~3 oz. pours

Croft Distinction Ruby Port � $8
Smith Woodhouse Late Bottled Vintage ’95 �� $9
Warre’s 2003 Vintage Port. � $15
Old Benson 10 year Tawny � $9
Smith Woodhouse 20 year Tawny � $13
Sandeman 30 year Tawny � $17
Blandy’s 10 year Malmsey Madeira � $9
Blandy's 1971 Bual Madeira �$19
Covey Run, Semillon Ice Wine, Yakima Valley, WA ‘06 � $14
Chateau Ste. Michelle, L.H. Chenin Blanc, Wa ‘05 � $8
Beviamo, Moscato D’Asti, NV � $8
Perrier-Jouet, Champagne, Epernay, FR NV � $15

You could list it as:

1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita (Tawny Port)

I don't think that I would list it as you suggested because that's not how it's printed on the label. I would worry that listing it like that would cause further confusion. I think that the best option, if your menu has the room for it, would be to give a short explanation along with the listing:

1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita
-- The "Vintage Port" of tawnies, Colheitas show notes of dried fruits and nuts.

More room, more description, etc.

Since you cannot be everywhere at once, educating your staff is paramount. At the very least I think that they need to understand the basic categories of Port as well as specifically where each Port you have on your menu fits into those categories. If you divide the categories into groups they're much easier to understand:

Tawny
Reserve Tawny
Tawny with an Indication of Age
Colheita

Ruby
Ruby Reserve
Late Bottled Vintage Port (LBV)
Vintage Port (VP)

Conveniently, it's actually somewhat difficult to find basic Tawnies and Rubies in the US. Unless you really do some searching, the lowest quality you're likely to find in the US is Reserve. I believe that Warre's Warrior is a Ruby Reserve just like Taylor Fladgate First Estate, Fonseca Bin 27, Graham's Six Grapes, and the like. That still leaves 6 different categories of Port, but it means you can use Tawny and Ruby as broader classifications into which those 6 categories fit.

You'll notice that I left off Single Quinta Vintage Port. That's because SQVP isn't really a category - every SQVP is in reality a Vintage Port. We Port geeks use SQVP to make a division between the primary labels and their single Quinta bretheren, but I'm pretty sure it's not a distinction that the IVdP makes.

Vintage Character is an old term that is no longer allowed (you might also see Crusted Port). If you want to serve one, I would recommend that you list it as stated on the label but then explain that it is similar in quality to an LBV.

Glenn beat me to it. I was going to suggest
1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita (Tawny)

I see plenty of just ruby and tawny in my parts. Somebody must be drinking it, or cooking with it, which is what I buy those basic categories for.

Or call it "Single Vintage Tawny"

You could do a section defining what each style of dessert wine you offer is like as a header for that section on the menu. For sure you should educate the staff so they can sell the product effective.

If you're serving '86 Smith Woodhouse Colheita, you got a top notch place that knows what they're serving that's for sure.

Or you could bill this as:

"1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita (ask what this is, you won't regret trying it!)"

Well well well....guess which single bottle of Colheita my distributor shows up with this week to try? Yup, the Smith Woodhouse '86. Woohooo...Damn tasty for sure and it is getting placed onto our BTG menu as soon as possible!

Thanks for the suggestions: I'll list as a Colheita with tawny in parenthesis.

Two points, but from a wine list writer point of view; looking at your list critically and as a Port enthusiast, not to mention a marketing slant:

a. you are missing a 40 year old Tawny on your list. If you had that, you could then have your servers selling "A Century of Port" flight. You have 2 oz. pours of a 10, 20, 30, 40 year old Tawny picking ones you really like in each spot. These should be poured tableside not by the bartender. It makes a greater impression and will get other diners asking their servers "what are those" kinda questions. That flight of four will catch on if you pair it with either one or two very specific desserts. Have the servers sell the whole package, including the dessert.

b. releasing your new Colheita properly by the glass? Tell your servers that whomever sells the most Colheita servings by the end of February can pick any day off they'd like in March and that you'll even pay them for that day off, in cash. It will boost the sales of the wine for sure, instill a little competitive edge with your servers, and provide them with a fun prize too. Keep a chart of all servers sales of the Colheita in plain sight updated daily and kept next to the time clock. Make sure to include the bartender in the contest

Roy Hersh wrote:...You have 2 oz. pours of a 10, 20, 30, 40 year old Tawny...

That's a bit scary from a liability/alcohol-management point of view. Adding 2.66 drinks to the end of an evening of drinking table wine with dinner, especially for people unfamiliar with port, might have unintended consequences. It doesn't look like much in the glass, it goes down easy, but it packs a lot of alcohol.

I don't know if 1 oz. pours would allow proper tasting, but if that is a possibility, it might be safer. Might make a better price-point as well. Downside is: a lot of glass-washing for a given sale. Upside is: might create some new port fans.

Peter W. Meek wrote:That's a bit scary from a liability/alcohol-management point of view. Adding 2.66 drinks to the end of an evening of drinking table wine with dinner, especially for people unfamiliar with port, might have unintended consequences. It doesn't look like much in the glass, it goes down easy, but it packs a lot of alcohol.

One of my local restaurants does a dessert wine flight of four, and they are at least 2 oz. pours each. I've gotten it on a number of occasions and usually share some of it. It still might be a liability, but it is not without precedent.

The waiter may "suggest" a glass of 40 instead of a flight if they've had too much.

Peter W. Meek wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:...You have 2 oz. pours of a 10, 20, 30, 40 year old Tawny...

That's a bit scary from a liability/alcohol-management point of view. Adding 2.66 drinks to the end of an evening of drinking table wine with dinner, especially for people unfamiliar with port, might have unintended consequences. It doesn't look like much in the glass, it goes down easy, but it packs a lot of alcohol.

I don't know if 1 oz. pours would allow proper tasting, but if that is a possibility, it might be safer. Might make a better price-point as well. Downside is: a lot of glass-washing for a given sale. Upside is: might create some new port fans.

No different than someone ordering multiple drinks with hard alcohol in them, no? As most states put the burden of when to stop serving someone on the shoulders of the server, it's their call when a patron has had too much. And yes, some serves don't know when to cut people off.

Peter W. Meek wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:...You have 2 oz. pours of a 10, 20, 30, 40 year old Tawny...

That's a bit scary from a liability/alcohol-management point of view.

Numerous restaurants around here have similar offers available. The ones I've seen aren't offered as a dessert course, they're offered as a flight of wine that you have throughout the meal. I'm sure most people save them until the end, but having them present at the table likely reduces the amount of other alcohol that person consumes.

Some people also share them, which is a great suggestion for your servers to make if a couple is dining out together. Particularly next weekend!

Flights rock.

That's a bit scary from a liability/alcohol-management point of view. Adding 2.66 drinks to the end of an evening of drinking table wine with dinner, especially for people unfamiliar with port, might have unintended consequences. It doesn't look like much in the glass, it goes down easy, but it packs a lot of alcohol.

Nobody said about people drinking table wine before this. Also this is definitely a dessert wine pairing opportunity with a specific dessert dish offering. From what I have seen in places where I've added "a hundred years of Port" or a century ... they've typically wound up being shared by a couple and the restaurants I've seen do this never gave stingy 1 oz. pours. That would be bad juju. You need to ozs. to get a real sense of these Ports, especially if split between couples which seems to be the way they wind up being purchased.

Definitely great suggestions and discussion. Couple things related to getting port out there. We often offer custom port flights whether it is two or three of them so a patron can compare ruby to tawny, compare which one they like with a particular dessert better, or compare a basic ruby to a VP, or for patrons to help choose a new 20 yr tawny versus the current one on the menu, or three wines where someone can compare a 10, 20, 30 yr. We invite lots of experimenting and mixing and matching depending on peoples questions, and we pour all wines to show the labels table side unless it is a refill with a fresh glass.

I am going to move towards a dessert wine "flight" offering with a choose any 3 of the starred wines for a flight. I don't have a 40 yr tawny on our menu YET because the prices are simply way too high wholesale in Alaska. I refuse to pay it and refuse to offer an overpriced $32+ glass of port and that's if we greatly reduce any normal markup. Since we pour a full 3oz, we normally only get about 7 pours per 750mL bottle since one glass may get spent on tastes for patrons (or myself ) and/or sediment. Undoubtedly we will eventually get a 40 yr on and offer that century of Port--I wasn't in too big a hurry to do that as two nearby restaurants offered that and we didn't want to copy when we first opened. We are now however setting the standard for wine in Anchorage and definitely dessert & port wines for sure, so we'll be able to do that easier now.

And staff education for sure, always. We do allot of tasting and discussing and training with our staff and I'm lucky that everyone of our wait staff actually really loves Port, ports, and sweeties. Many nights their discounted "shifter" beverage of choice is a Port wine. And as with all alcohol service in our establishment and most other reputable classier joints, alcohol consumption and patrons are always closely watched out for for sure.
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Re: 4x2 oz being a scary flight (The OP said it was a restaurant menu, and many people drink wine with dinner in restaurants that serve wine.)

I just think adding 2.66 drinks to the end of an evening (shared or not) is a risky move for a restaurant to plan, and even "sell". We live in a litigious age.

I just think adding 2.66 drinks to the end of an evening ...

Is this coming from the same guy who described in detail what he'd do in an airport if ...


Anyway, Scott I hope that at some point I get up your way to visit your operation. It sounds great and up there, must be hard to find anything like it. Ever had anyone come in and say they heard it about it from FTLOP? I realize the odds are pretty remote, but just curious.