February: Port

The assignment: Port to Port: Everyone brings in a port and we'll probe our preferences. If you behave I'll teach you a British maritime drinking game. Basically it involves drinking a lot, in a special order, and lauding Her Royal Highness. By the way, women are not allowed to play, so some of us will be in the kitchen making crumpets. Sarcasm also prohibited.

The players: Tere, Andy, Andy, Roxy, Az, Nat, Ash and Kab

The discussion:

Port 1: notes of blackberry and honey. "Do you think it's Hungarian or Romanian blackberry?" Sweet but not cloying. "I could drink more of this."

Port 2: More alcohol than 1, tastes like sherry, it kind of burns. Cough medicine with an aftertaste of raisins. Suitable for a cold, snowy night. (Color hinted that it was a tawny port. Was it? Scroll down for the dramatic unveiling.)

Port 3: milder, juicier, overtly blueberry, not as viscous as previous two, and no bouquet. Effect: slightly alc-y blueberry juice. Gateway drug?

Port 4: less nose than 1 but taste makes a similar statement. Complex, subtle and drinkable. Flavors? "I hate to say this, but prunes."

The votes: Port 1 was hands down the favorite, followed by 4.

The unveiling:

Port 1: Evenus Zinfandel Port, Candlewood Cellars, Paso Robles, 2006. $11 for 375 ml.Ripe, jammy aromas of cherry and blackberry with spicy note sof anise, sage, pepper and cinnamon. Complex and fruity, this full-bodied wine offers intense mocha and nutty flavors that flow into a lengthy, balanced finish. (More, from a 3rd party website.)

Port 2: Ficklin Vineyards Tawny Port, aged 10 years. Madera, California. $29 for 750 ml.This Tawny Port exhibits the softness and maturity developed only from aging in hand-selected small oak casks for 10 years. Each step of this hand-crafted wine has been personally supervised by winemaker Peter Ficklin, from the harvest of the grapes, to the final bottling. More here.

Port 3: Graham's "Six Grapes" Reserve Porto. No year. $22 for 750 ml.Six Grapes is bottled relatively young to conserve its fresh, assertive style and is not subjected to fining or filtration to ensure that it retains its superb, delicious fruit concentration. However, Six Grapes is released for immediate enjoyment and does not require decanting. More here.

Wine 4: Smith Woodhouse. Late Bottle Vintage Porto. 1995. $31 for 750 ml.
After 4 years in the cask, the wines are bottled unfiltered and cellared for an additional 4 years. It is the all-important bottle-maturation which allows the wine to develop outstanding style and complexity, resulting in a deep garnet Port with rich mouth-filling flavours of ripe fruit, balanced by notes of black chocolate and peppery tannins. More here.

Nibbles:

Goat cheese brie, which the group seemed to like with the ports, and a parmiggiano reggiano which we munched out more out of obligation than anything else.
 
On the sweet side: chocolate covered cranberries, and two bars by Chocolove: orange peel in dark chocolate and cherries and almonds in dark chocolate (this blogger's favorite. Yum!).


The conclusion: Thanks to Natalie, Kabir and our smartphones, we learned the difference between port and porto and the history of port, and thanks to the variety that was brought in, we discovered some differences between younger and older ports, and tawny versus ruby. How do you say "Word!" in Portuguese?


The pictures:

An hour or so into it, the iphones came out. Why, you ask? Because we wanted to find out where port comes from. Right. That's it.