When
was the last time you and your ole drinkin’ buddy threw down a few glasses
of Vintage Ports - or even just a couple of 10 year old Tawny’s with a nice
piece of blue cheese or a handful of walnuts? Never happened. Well that’s
really too bad for if you are a lover of chocolate or the aforementioned blue
cheese, you are missing what is truly one mouthful of an experience.
The
remarkable thing about Port wine is that it starts out somewhat similar to
Cognac. Obscure grapes (Touriga Nacional?? among others) are made into wine
you would not drink and then by what was sort of a mistake, in this case adding
brandy (What else are we going to do with it?) and aging it in barrels that
have been used for making of all things whisky and other wine (What else are
we going to do with them?) and after waiting for what seems like a lifetime
(I tasted a ’36 a few months ago) you end up with this slightly thick nectar
that helped create the definition for the color Ruby.
The
genesis of Port wine begins as no surprise in, (pause) Portugal and even better
in the town of Oporto. (Why make this up when it’s true) We visited there
a year ago (big flashing WRITEOFF) and it is a magic place controlled by time
and a fair amount of money. The advance of Port began when those wacky English
and French where in a period of “unrest” as they like to call the 17th
century and the English were looking to replace France wine.
One
must truly wait for Port. 2000 was declared a vintage and tastes sticky sweet
and is real purplie, unfortunately I’m not sure if I will be around to try
it on the other end of 20 or 30 years from now. The 90’s were great years
for Port with ’91, ’94, ’97, ’99 all being declared vintage years so you youngins’
have something to look forward to.
Port
can be made from almost any wine that you can add brandy to and age a little.
It’s made in the U.S. and even in Illinois, Alto Vineyards has a killer ’99
and the Glunz Family makes award winning Port from California grapes in a
northwest suburb of Chicago (really).
Time
is the tyrant for Port and limits its wide appeal for aged Port may rest in
bottle a hundred years or more but when opened has only a few hours or at
most a week of life to be enjoyed. Tawny Ports on the other hand are usually
blends and are aged in oak barrels that give them a month or more of shelf
life so it truly is a real “drink up” situation.
I’ll
call you when I open my bottles of 40 year Tawny that survived the train wreck
in Spain – you bring the Stilton and nuts.
That’s
my whine, I could be wrong.