For The Love Of Port

I'm the president of a small wine club - 14 members and on Tuesday, 11/8/05, I will host my first tasting for Porto....very exciting!

I have purchased 1 bottle of Ruby, 1 bottle of 1985 Colheita (Tawny) and 1 bottle of Vintage Porto.

QUESTION 1: Is Porto meant to be consumed in the same manner as, say a Merlot, or is this really a specialty sipping wine. Is 3 bottles enough wine for 14 people?

QUESTION 2: Other than the famous Stilton Cheese which I've read so much about, what other suggestions do you have for food pairing? I've read about chocolate desserts, dried fruits and nuts but what else should I serve?

Darline

Your tasting is going to show some interesting contrasts in style. Out of curiosity, can you say who the shippers are for the different wines.

I would guess that the answer to your first question will depend on the person drink the port. I will quite happily have a glass of port with my meal and drink it in exactly the same way as I would if it were a glass of merlot. The higher alcohol level simply means I would normally have one glass rather than two. But I also enjoy sipping the wine if there is no food around.

3 bottles between 14 people should be fine. For the ruby and colheita, you will not lose any wine by decanting off the sediment so should end up with 50cl pours per person. Most likely you will need to decant the vintage port to remove the sediment and to help the flavour improve with exposure to air (if you post which port you are pouring then people here will offer suggestions as to how far in advance of your tasting you should decant this - you might be surprised at how much time it takes for vintage port to reach its peak). Even after decanting, you should still end up with close to a 50cl pour for the vintage port.

3 glasses of port per person would be about the same as a third of a bottle of port. This should be plenty to be able to experience the contrasting styles and flavours of the wines. One thing that always amazes me is the way in which the wines change over time in the glass - maybe this is why port is often sipped.

Food pairings are tough, but I would avoid strong creamy cheeses as my experience is that something like a strong Camembert will kill the taste of the wine. Other things that have worked for me have been dried meats (like jerky or air cured ham) or a warm, rich casserole. I think I've read elsewhere on the forum that Roy recommends a simple mature cheddar.

When you have held the tasting, let us know what you thought of the wines.

Good luck,

Alex

Darline,

Sounds like a great idea. Let us know what the Ports are when you've done and drop in some TNs. It will be interesting to see them from a Port virgin. I'd agree with Alex B on the accompaniments and would stuck to hard aged cheeses. Dried meats and salamis also go well and rich, dark chocolate but beware that some ports cannot take the intense flavours, so it's a good indicator how they react.

Alex - I'm assuming you mean 50ml as a 50 cl pour is pretty big! Old people just don't get metric, do they?

Alex

Oops. Obviously a 50 cl pour is what I'm used to pouring for myself

You are right, I meant to say that a 50 ml pour is a perfectly respectable size. Roughly, roughly its the volume that take a Riedel Vinum Port Glass up to the widest part of the glass. Hence, to my mind, its about the right size for a single small glass of port.


Alex

Hmmm, no word back on how this went. Bummer about that. Particularly since it's always interesting to guage a person's first port experience.

--A

Yes, I was hoping that Darline would be back to post some sort of notes or tell us how it all went.

I was guessing that the '85 Colheita was either a Krohn or Niepoort.

Thank you all for replying to my inquiry in preparation for my Port tasting.
Everything went very well and everyone who attended was extremely pleased!!


We tasted 3 bottles:

Taylor Fladgate
Fine Ruby Porto
Vintage Year Unknown7
$18.29

Offley (Baron de Forrester)
“Colheita” Tawny Porto
Vintage 1985
$39.85

Cockburn’s
Vintage Porto
Vintage 2000
$52.99

These were paired the Chocolate Mousse Cake, Peach Tart and a New York Style Cheesecake. For cheeses, I paired them with Stilton Blue, Applewood Smoked Cheddar and Port Salut cheese. We had dried cranberries, too.

You were right, these styles were all very diffeent. Each we good in itself, but most people seemed to refer the Ruby.

The vintage Port was decanted 3 days prior.

Thanks again for your help and happy tasting!

Darline
Philadelphia Wine Hobbyists
http://groups.msn.com/pwh/tastingschedule05.msnw

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Darline,

Thanks for tasting your comments. Its interesting that most people preferred the Ruby port, I would have expected that most people preferred the Cockburn's 2000.

I've never tried the Taylor's ruby, maybe I should hunt out a bottle to taste myself.

As an interesting idea for one of your future tastings, try getting 3 bottles of the same vintage port and decanting them 12 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours before the tasting. Include a ruby port and I would be really interested to know which of the wines your tasting group preferred then.

But thanks for the feedback. It always nice to hear back what people thought when they've asked for some input.

Alex

Alex, I'm not surprise that the group enjoy the most the Ruby. Unfortunately it is often the case, especially with beginners.

I often organized port tastings to introduced people to the subject and most of the time they were mostly please with a Niepoort Junior. Most of these people do not have a trained palate and do not really pay attention to what they taste until you point them.

My uncle who came with me in Portugal last week was also a big fan of Ruby. Since he came back, he has his glass of 6 grapes every night!

It is part of the learning curve, if you want to learn!

Kudos to the person that decided to pair port with cheesecake. Could be considered heresy by some but cheesecake with ruby or LBV is delightful. But only with a New York style cheescake, as you had.

In less than a week my new convection oven will be installed and put to the test with my latest cheesecake recipe. That will be a port night for sure.

--A