Port for your pleasure

Dec 18 2009 by Katharine Everitt, The Journal

I’M tickled by a ditty which I remember from one of the first wine books I bought: “Port, Port, no Briton ought, consider that he’s done his duty, until he’s felt, beneath his belt, a bottle of the old and fruity.”

I am happy to report that so far, I have failed in this duty spectacularly. One modest glass is quite enough for me – but it must be served in a glass big enough to let the wine ‘breathe’, so that I can enjoy its wonderful aroma – and once opened, it really does need to be drunk up within a few days, to enjoy the full benefit of its gloriously rich fruit. Stale Port is horrid.

While some of the old customs associated with drinking Port seem to have more to do with upper-class twits or military men getting sloshed than with the appreciation of a truly fine wine, the habit of serving it with Stilton is inspired.

Most sweet wines complement cheese and Port is one of the few red wines not spoiled or overpowered by it. So be creative; try Port and Berwick Edge, Port and Coquetdale, in fact Port and almost any good cheese. Or just drink it on its own.

I can’t get terribly excited about using Port as a mixer, but if Port and lemon gives you pleasure, go for it. I suspect that a lot of Croft’s Pink Port (the first rosé Port on the market) will end up in a big glass with something else unless the something else is an ice-cube.

It’s surprisingly nice and there’s no need to hide or dilute its vividly fruity cherry-like flavour. Mind you, it’s very sweet. Serve it well chilled, with ice if you like, and try a small glass with a fruity pud. It’s much more fun than most cheap, young, ruby Ports. It costs £9.99 from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Better quality Port is either aged in cask for a long time and sold as ‘tawny’, or aged in the bottle and sold as (some variant of) ‘vintage’. All true cask-aged tawny carries an indication of its age, or of its harvest date – a Colheita Port.

Vintage Port proper is only ‘declared’ in the very best years and is rare and expensive, but Late Bottle Vintage, which usually doesn’t throw a deposit and therefore shouldn’t need to be decanted, and Single Quinta Vintage Ports, which do and should, are both far more affordable.