For The Love Of Port

I am thinking of having Port with dessert. The problem seems to be: which dessert. I thought of some kind of cake of nuts, but I don't find any advise anywhere. Any recommendations/recepies? Ari-Heikki Vikman

Hi Ari,

to FTLOP. I've moved this post to the Port Basics section so more people see it and reply top your question. A number of us enjoy Port with food, including myself, but I'll let them post their thoughts before I do.

I enjoy port with all kinds of food, not just dessert.

I personally cook alot of asian styled cuisine at home and I'm tired of hearing people tell me reisling for all chinese foods (the acidity just annoys me after a while) so i started pairing anything that has black pepper or is really spicy with port and i've found the combination works really well for me with the rubies and young vps.

When I'm grilling steaks at home, I'll rub it with a light cayenne pepper and paprika and it makes an awesome ruby/young vintage pairing.

With chicken, if i marinate it with alot of ginger and white pepper, I find a tawny works pretty well.

I think the traditional pairing is chocolate with ruby styles
nuts with tawny styles
stilton and other blues with ruby styles
hard cheese with tawny (not sure about this one)

Now that I think about it, i must admit I 've never paid much attention to pairing ports with desserts. Most desserts i feel are too sweet that i usually just stick with a really young tawny or a sweeter styled madiera like bual or malvasia.

though a nice vp itself is a treat for dessert.

I enjoy Custard like desserts with port go well with Tawny and Colheita. They don't compete against each other.

I enjoy all sorts of foods paired with Port, including a variety of desserts. As for a cake with nuts, that does seem a little more challenging. The first such dessert I thought of was a date-nut cake, a really dense heavy cake where the cake batter really just holds the nuts (pecans mostly, possibly walnuts or hazelnuts) and chopped dates together. I'd think you could pair a tawny or colheita with this, and possibly even an older VP. What kind of cake were you thinking of?

Moses Botbol wrote:I enjoy Custard like desserts with port go well with Tawny and Colheita. They don't compete against each other.

ooh totally slipped my mind + 1 for that one!

Desserts can be a bit tricky to pair up with anything that has tannin, and I also think you need to be a bit careful with anything that uses chocolate too heavily - particularly white or milk chocolate. I wouldn't attempt to pair any port with a chocolate dessert but that might just be me.
The nuttiness of tawnies makes them a little easier to pair with desserts and I think that acid is easier to match with desserts than tannin so keep that in mind. There are a number of fruits that lend themselves to port - berries work quite well as you can often pick up berry notes in the port itself. Pears are also a fruit I think works well although this is because the flavour of a pear is more subtle.
I can see tawny ports going well with pastry based deserts -how about a cherry and ricotta strudel? I reckon that would work with a tawny
For a young vp or an lbv try this one -
I ocassionally do a dish of winter poached fruits where I use some or all of apple, quince, pear, ruby grapefurit, orange, prune, ruhbarb, all poached in a red wine poaching syrup (2parts wine 3 parts water sugar to taste) along with spices, cinnamon, cardamon, star anise, vanilla bean. I serve it warm with slice macapone reale (it's mascapone with a blue cheese laced through it) on top. If I can't find the mascapone reale I'll use a creamier blue cheese. This works well with something that has great fruit and a little bit of tannin.

Paul Fountain wrote:I ocassionally do a dish of winter poached fruits where I use some or all of apple, quince, pear, ruby grapefurit, orange, prune, ruhbarb, all poached in a red wine poaching syrup (2parts wine 3 parts water sugar to taste) along with spices, cinnamon, cardamon, star anise, vanilla bean. I serve it warm with slice macapone reale (it's mascapone with a blue cheese laced through it) on top. If I can't find the mascapone reale I'll use a creamier blue cheese. This works well with something that has great fruit and a little bit of tannin.

On the Harvest Tour we had a lovely poached pear in spiced port at Quinta de la Rosa.

Ari,
Don't forget about the main dish as well. I love a good steak with a younger Vintage Port of Late Bottle Vintage (LBV) Port. The steak handles the rich fruit and tannins quite of these young Ports quite well.

Used to have port ( 10 yr old tawnys ) and peanut butter .
But then the wisdom showed me the light

A friend recommended me to try a strong dish, like roasted goatlind or roasted meat, with delicious potatoes and a 1994 vintage (Quinta do Estanho).

Half the bottle with the main course... and the other half with the dessert (Portuguese Queijo da Serra - Cheese) or quality dark chocolate.

Now it's summer, so maybe i'll wait a few more months to try it when the cold weather asks dishes with more substance :)

hugo oliveira wrote:A friend recommended me to try a strong dish, like roasted goatlind or roasted meat, with delicious potatoes and a 1994 vintage (Quinta do Estanho).

Half the bottle with the main course... and the other half with the dessert (Portuguese Queijo da Serra - Cheese) or quality dark chocolate.

Now it's summer, so maybe i'll wait a few more months to try it when the cold weather asks dishes with more substance :)

Just switch to a slightly chilled Tawny Port, preferably a younger one that still has a touch of fruit showing in it.

Andy Velebil wrote:

hugo oliveira wrote:A friend recommended me to try a strong dish, like roasted goatlind or roasted meat, with delicious potatoes and a 1994 vintage (Quinta do Estanho).

Half the bottle with the main course... and the other half with the dessert (Portuguese Queijo da Serra - Cheese) or quality dark chocolate.

Now it's summer, so maybe i'll wait a few more months to try it when the cold weather asks dishes with more substance :)

Just switch to a slightly chilled Tawny Port, preferably a younger one that still has a touch of fruit showing in it.

or do it in your boxers,

so I've heard

Jeff G. wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:

hugo oliveira wrote:A friend recommended me to try a strong dish, like roasted goatlind or roasted meat, with delicious potatoes and a 1994 vintage (Quinta do Estanho).

Half the bottle with the main course... and the other half with the dessert (Portuguese Queijo da Serra - Cheese) or quality dark chocolate.

Now it's summer, so maybe i'll wait a few more months to try it when the cold weather asks dishes with more substance :)

Just switch to a slightly chilled Tawny Port, preferably a younger one that still has a touch of fruit showing in it.

or do it in your boxers,

so I've heard

But what would the neighbors think

the neighbours would be envious of course, for at least 3 reasons:

- the food
- the wine
- and this "adonis" body

hugo oliveira wrote:the neighbours would be envious of course, for at least 3 reasons:

- the food
- the wine
- and this "adonis" body

The blog post on the homepage discusses some interesting Port pairings ... 'it's not just for breakfast anymore.'