PORT FOR YOUR TORT?
The tables across our land overflow with treats and desserts of all descriptions during the holidays, and it can be hard to pair wine well with all those delectable goodies. How does one figure out what sort of wine will work?
Finding harmonious complements – opposite flavors that make one another taste better – is one way to decide. When it works, your taste buds are bounced back and forth like a happy ping-pong ball in a perfect volley. However, finding a perfect complement can be a bit tricky.
It’s easier to match the wine by matching taste characteristics that also exist in the food. Focusing in on primary flavors can simplify the process of the pairing. Since the unifying flavor of desserts is sweetness, let’s take a look at Ports, delicious wines that mimic a desserts’ sweetness.
Port, or Porto, is a fortified wine that can go with a wide variety of desserts and other sweet foods and are most often red or tawny. The red ports include ruby port, character or shipper’s port, vintage port and late-bottled vintage or LBV port. These ports retain a vibrant red color and ripe fruit flavors.
Sandeman Founders Reserve, available at The Winetree.
Ruby port is the least expensive red port. It is blended from multiple vintages and exhibits youth, fruitiness and a brighter red color.
Vintage port comes entirely from a single year’s harvest. It is produced only from the best vintages, vat aged less than two years and offers the most distinction in flavor and style. Aging in- bottle for at least fifteen years is required to develop its full character and complexity. Even newly released vintage port is rather pricy; expect to pay a premium for an older bottle that has been aged for you.
Between these two are character port and LBV port. Both are an ideal compromise between price and quality. Character port is made from the highest quality ruby and is a mix of different vintages, blended to achieve consistency and the shipper’s chosen “character.” It is aged longer than ruby. Look for producers of repute such as Fonseca, Sandeman, Warre’s or Graham’s. LBV port also comes from a single vintage. Unlike vintage port, LBV is aged four to six years in wood and is ready to drink or age further. The price range for LBV and character port is about the same.
Tawny port is different, both in flavor and color, due to longer aging in narrow oak casks called pipes. More surface contact with the breathing oak increases oxidation, evaporation and the settling-out of solids. The red color changes to more of an orange-brown or light golden brown (tawny) color.
The taste also changes during aging, becoming less fruity and more complex, like caramel. The evaporation concentrates flavors and sugars, making the wine even richer. Younger tawnys are usually aged 3 to 5 years with ten, twenty and even forty-year wines readily available.
Because their predominant flavors are different, red and tawny ports pair up differently. Blue cheese, chocolate and fruit or chocolate flavored desserts usually pair best with red ports. Tawny port is the preferred choice with cheesecake, nuts or that after dinner cigar. Try both types and find out which you prefer. You could invite friends and make a party out of it; everyone’s taste is different, and comparing tasting notes is extremely interesting.
Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season filled with love, laughter and of course, great food and wine.
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Photo Credit vinolist.com
