Not Just Any Old Port

[Roy Hersh]

Not Just Any Old Port

By Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
Wednesday, October 10, 2007; F05



Tawny port is autumn in a glass. Its caramel, nut and baking-spice flavors, not to mention its reddish-brown color, reminiscent of turning leaves, make it the quintessential wine of the season.

Port in general has few equals in its ability to raise autumnal foods -- blue cheeses, dark-chocolate desserts, pecan and pumpkin pies -- to thrilling new levels of deliciousness. And year-round, serving a sweet, rich, smooth glass of port concludes a meal with grace and civility.

It's also a deal: Another wine aged as long could cost several times the price. And because the average port pour is about half the size of a glass of regular wine, one bottle can easily serve twice as many people.

Americans finally are getting hip to port. As of the 1990s, the United States has been importing more vintage port than has Britain. So forget the traditional images of leather armchairs, cigars and stuffy gentlemen's clubs that might have kept you away.

A tradition worth upholding, however, is port's pairing with blue cheeses such as Stilton. It is arguably the greatest wine and cheese combination of all time, with port's sweetness taming the cheeses' salty pungency. And a new tradition you'll want to start is pairing port with autumn pies, which can create just as much magic.

After spying the first bright- orange pumpkins of fall, we craved pumpkin pie so intensely that we mail-ordered the only version we've ever loved: the pie from Royers Round Top Cafe in Round Top, Tex. (population 89). We also ordered the cafe's legendary pecan pie and owner Bud Royer's namesake Bud's Chocolate Chip Pie ( http://www.royersroundtopcafe.com). Port's diversity is such that we were able to find the perfect partner for each pie.

Port is made by fortifying wine to an alcohol level near 20 percent by adding a neutral brandy called aguardente, which halts fermentation. The unfermented grape sugar creates a sweet wine.

Ruby ports are aged only briefly in wood and then in the bottle, which allows them to retain their red color and sweet berrylike flavors. They pair beautifully as a point of comparison with berry- flavored desserts and as a contrast to chocolate- and nut-flavored desserts and blue cheeses.

Tawny ports are aged longer in wood before bottling, which gives them their reddish-brown color and characteristic caramel, dried-fig, nut and baking-spice flavors. While that flavor profile can overwhelm berry desserts, tawny ports work well with blue cheeses and chocolate sweets, and they pair most exquisitely as a point of comparison with pumpkin and pecan pies.

Aged tawny ports trumpet their maturity on their labels as badges of honor. Tasting them is more enjoyable when someone else is paying: As a guest at the James Beard House, Andrew once tasted a priceless 100-year-old tawny port that was highly refined with very light citrus and nut notes. However, those of us looking for the biggest bang for our bucks would do well to choose 10- and 20-year-old aged tawny ports, such as the fruitier Churchill's Tawny Porto 10 Years Old ($29) and the mellowed Sandeman Tawny Porto 20 Years Old ($49), which perfectly echoed the flavors of our pumpkin pie, elevating the duo to new heights.

The top 2 percent of ports are vintage ports, which are barrel-aged for two years, with vintages generally declared a few times per decade. They can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars a bottle.

The similar-sounding "late bottled vintage" style refers to ports that have been aged in the barrel for four to six years before bottling and are ready to drink upon release. They often are filtered and do not require decanting -- or such deep pockets. Fonseca Porto Late Bottled Vintage 2000 ($23), for example, is notably less tannic (and less expensive) than vintage port. When Bud's Chocolate Chip Pie hit our table, the richness of this LBV's flavor -- reminiscent of chocolate-covered cherries and raisins -- made for a luscious pairing.

Outside the European Union, port can be called port even if it's not made in its native region of Douro, in northern Portugal, which in 1756 became one of the world's first demarcated wine regions. If sold in America, the real thing must be labeled "Oporto" or "Vinho do Porto." However, countries other than Portugal have been making similar fortified wines that are rather impressive.

From Australia, we savored the Chateau Reynella McLaren Vale Old Cave Fine Old Tawny Port ($19), with a somewhat lighter body and classic tawny flavor profile including a dry, nutty finish. At Zola restaurant in Penn Quarter, Director of Operations Ralph Rosenberg is a fan of Yalumba Museum Reserve Antique Tawny ($7 a glass at Zola). He especially likes it with what he terms "challenging-flavored pies," such as cherry, blackberry or rhubarb, because aging creates "a wonderful sherrylike consistency that accentuates the fruit with hints of vanilla and oak." On Zola's current menu, he's finding it an ideal match for chocolate desserts and a banana mousse cake with caramel notes.

From California, we've enjoyed tawny- and vintage-port-style wines from Ficklin Vineyards in Madera, which produced the first port-style wine made in the United States solely from Portuguese grape varieties. (When he lived in San Francisco, Andrew used to buy it by the case and give bottles as holiday gifts.) Seek out the Ficklin Vineyards Old Vine Tinta Port ($14) for a ruby-port-style wine with dark plum and chocolate flavors to pair with Stilton cheese.

As much as we love to sip port with cheese or dessert, it packs enough complex flavor to make for an elegant ending to a meal all on its own. A dessert this satisfying, even if it's in a glass, is a seasonal tradition we could get behind.

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, award-winning authors of "What to Drink With What You Eat," can be reached through their Web site,http://www.becomingachef.com , or [email protected].

TIP: A Bottle of October

October is Apple Month, Caramel Month and Dessert Month, with specific dates designated as National Moldy Cheese Day (Oct. 9), National Nut Day (Oct. 22) and National Chocolate Day (Oct. 28). As those are all great matches with port, there's clearly no better month to enjoy a bottle. Here's how:

-Store port someplace cool, even the refrigerator. Serve at about 65 degrees.

-Serve 2 or 3 ounces, or about half a usual wine pour. Use a regular wineglass to allow for swirling and sniffing.

-How fast should you drink that bottle? Because port is a fortified wine, it should last longer than table wines do. If you like the taste of a freshly opened bottle, the sooner you finish it, the better. However, some people like the way port develops flavor over time as it is exposed to air. We've had bottles of aged tawny port that have been delicious as long as several months after being opened.

-Port makers to keep an eye out for: Churchill, Cockburn, Croft, Delaforce, Dow, Fonseca, Graham's, Quinta do Noval, Sandeman, Taylor and Warre .


© 2007 The Washington Post Company

[Moses Botbol]

So forget the traditional images of leather armchairs, cigars and stuffy gentlemen's clubs that might have kept you away

A tradition worth upholding, however, is port's pairing with blue cheeses such as Stilton. It is arguably the greatest wine and cheese combination of all time, with port's sweetness taming the cheeses' salty pungency.

As storied as Stilton and port are, I do not find them to be a good pair. There's not enough acid to cut the stilton. Rich on rich tastes are not always a compliment in book. Monchego any day over Stilton.

Leather arm chairs, cigars... sounds like my kind of place!