Today I decided to address a problem I've had with drinking, and that problem has been my unexplainable avoidance of porto. So, to address the problem, I purchased a bottle of Cockburn's Fine Tawny Porto, straight from Gaia Portugal.
Chefed up some French onion soup this evening, using some of Cockburn's porto in the recipe. I also used some damn good imported Swiss Gruyere as well (no French-style Gruyere to speak of, Pepe), shredding it and applying heaps to the hot soup. Good stuff when outdoors it's -11 F (at least the temp at 8:15pm). I've been texting various friends to bring me another bottle of porto (as you can see the first is now a dead soldier).
Back to some Mencken for the evening...
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8 comments:
I love port but invariably get a headache the next day. brand suggestions?
Hmmmm... I haven't experienced any porto headaches to date. Here's one suggestion: go on a week-long whiskey binge where consumption is at a maximum, and sleep at a minimum. After drying out for a couple days (you know, only drinking beers), then switch to your port, and the next morning you won't feel near as bad as the previous week.
More seriously, I could only recommend the bottle you see, Cockburn's Fine Tawny Porto. It comes in roughly around $14-$15. I'm just getting into drinking ports, and my ability to experiment with different types is also guided by the monetary factor. At the liquor store I saw a couple brands that pushed into the $60 range. I don't see myself trying those anytime soon.
...also, the friend I texted to retrieve more port supplies came through.
I tried not too long ago Graham's port and it was just great.
How much is a bottle going for these days, AI?
i experimented with bottles ranging from $25 to over $60 if I recall but that had no incidence. Now there are some outrageously expensive ports that fetch in the hundreds but i don't know whether that would have any incidence or whether, at this price, a sauternes wouldn't be preferable altogether.
the one and only time when one would actually want aa to weigh in on an issue and he's gone.
Thanks to AA, aa is not gone....yet. Not fatally, at least.
Ports from Portugal, in the 12-13 to 25 dollar range, are only slightly distinguishable from the 60s or more. Never never pay hundreds for a port. That is madoff pompery without substance behind it. Blindolded, the 200$ bottles taste really good....just like the 50-60$ bottles. And, again, the cheaper ones taste bloody good.
Now, its a matter of personal taste, sure, but in general I think the Tawny's are particularly strong at the lower price ranges. Ruby is sweeter, and not my preference. But if you do like sweeter that's the way to go. I find "white port" peculiar, but, hey, there's them who likes it.
In general, the best brands at the "under 20 or so" are Graham and Cintra. Sandeman is quite popular, but in most years it's definitely a meaner grade.
By the way, this is for Portuguese Port. There are now some mediocre/adequate to reasonable port wines coming out of California, but I don't know them well enough to have anything to report--except that the reasonable ones are not cheap at all. The Australian ports range from poor to adequate, and I do recommend avoiding them. The most expensive are adequate...so why bother?
There are also some Ports being produced in South Africa. Those I've tasted ranged from "sugared chemotoxins" to "vile swill". If you do taste them, make sure a cuspidor is handy.
A 10-year old Graham's Tawny Port will set you back some 25 bucks. I think I got a 15 year old Port for $30 and change at a tax-free airport. I'm too cheap to spend much more than $30 on a bottle of port, but maybe I'll try a 20 year old one, one of these days.
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