Wine for Port Day

I was finally able to go back to class today after missing all of last week. I'm still blowing my nose all the time and coughing a lot (turns out I have Bronchitis), but at least I was able to leave the house for the first time since last Sunday.

What made my return even better was the fact that today was Port day, and I love me some Port!! Tawny Port especially...delicious, sweet, nutty, some like liquid toffee...what's not to love?

Ports are fortified wines, which means that a neutral-tasting grape spirit (77% alcohol) is added before fermentation is completed, creating wines that are both sweet and high in alcohol (around 20%). There are Ruby Ports, which are red in color, and Tawny Ports, which are brown. Ruby Ports tend to have more fruity aromas and flavors, while the Tawny Ports have more nuttiness and much less fruit.

I always thought that these differences were due to differences in grape varietals, but it isn't. It is due to the time that the port spends aging in wood. This fascinates me. Vintage (Ruby ports) will spend up to 2 years aging in wood, Late Bottle Vintage (also ruby) spend 2-4 years in wood, while Tawny ports spend a minimum of 6 years in wood. So what is the difference? Wood, unlike stainless steel or concrete, breathes. Oxygen gets into the wood and affects the wine, changing its color and flavor, often causing that nuttiness.

We also tried several Madeira's today, but they're a whole other ball of wax, so I'll save those for tomorrow.

In the meantime, tomorrow is our Iberian Peninsula test (Spain, Portugal) and a blind tasting of one white and one red wine from anywhere in the world except Germany. We'll see how it goes, since I still can't smell much out of my blocked schnozz.

While I study, I will enjoy the inch of port left in one of the tasting bottles I brought home from class. It is a Krohn 20 year Tawny Port, and it has all the toffee, nutty, golden raisin deliciousness I love. And at about $35 a bottle, it is quite a reasonable introduction to 20-year Tawny. Remember, unless you are me and Steve, you get more out of a bottle of port than a traditional bottle of wine, since most people drink much less port in a sitting than red or white wine. So where you might get 4 or 5 glasses from a bottle of wine, you might get 12 servings from one bottle of port.

Or you can do like Steve and I do, and just stick two giant straws in the port bottle and go to town.