In their purple capes and black hats with silver tastevins hanging around their necks, Portugal’s Confraria do Vinho do Porto descended upon Vancouver to induct myself and 20 colleagues from across Canada into the Port Wine Brotherhood. Founded in 1982, the Confraria’s mission is to communicate, promote and reinforce the worldwide reputation of port wine. To date, the Confraria has invited 2,000 wine professionals from around the globe into their brotherhood to help them with their worthy pursuits. Oct. 31 marked the Confraria’s first visit to Vancouver and I was honoured to be welcomed in at the rank of cavaleiro (knight). From fellow journalists and educators to importers, retailers, buyers and sommeliers, we all took a pledge to “continue fighting for the reputation of port wine.”
Port is a sweet fortified wine made from grapes grown in Portugal’s breathtaking Douro Valley. Grape brandy is added while the wine ferments, leaving it with plenty of residual sugar and boosting the alcohol to around 20 per cent.
The many different types of port can mostly be grouped into two main categories: Tawny and Ruby. Tawnies are typically aged in wood for a number of years before being bottled; this slow, purposeful oxidation imparts, well, a tawny colour, along with tantalizing flavours of caramel, coffee, dried fruit, and nuts. Ruby ports spend much less time aging in the cask, and are deep red with a rich, ripe, fruity character. The very best type is Vintage port: Made from a single and superior declared year, it usually requires a couple of decades in the bottle to tame, integrate, and allow its captivating nuances to develop.
Port is often saddled with the image of belonging in exclusive old gentlemen’s clubs. However, I was invited into the Port Confraria by the barely 30-something Tânia Branco Oliveira, PR and communications director at Sogevinus, which owns esteemed port houses like Kopke and Burmester. Not your stereotypical port drinker, Tânia proudly wears a button proclaiming, “I’m cool; I drink Port.” She’s a generous drinking companion, too. To toast the new inductees, she cracked a 1941 Kopke Colheita (vintage-dated tawny). Still impossibly fresh, this 75-year-old rarity could be the most memorable port I’ve ever tasted.
The past few weeks’ dreary weather and the looming holiday season are certainly conducive to port sipping. Yet George Sandeman (seventh-generation chairman of the renowned Sandeman port houseand chancellor of the Port Confraria) advocates year-round indulgence. He enjoys a basic, inexpensive Ruby port over ice in summer, or as a base for a hot toddy in the winter. He also recommends keeping all ports in the fridge and – with the exception of its use in a toddy – drinking them slightly chilled.
For the suggestions below, just pour a glass and sip it alongside whatever combination of chocolate, cheese and toasted nuts you like most.
Fonseca Bin 27 Reserve Port • LTO $21.99; regular $23.99 • BC Liquor Stores
A tangle of sunbaked dark berries, plum and sweet spice on a plush, pleasing palate.
2011 Quinta do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port • $26.99• BC Liquor Stores
An affordable alternative to Vintage port. Also made from a single year but aged longer in cask, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) ports are ready to drink when released. Here, brooding blackberry, cherry, chocolate and violet flavours are held together by mouth-coating tannins.
Ramos Pinto 10-Year-Old Tawny Port • $40-44• Private Wine Stores (such as Everything Wine, Kitsilano Wine Cellar and Granville Liquor Store)
Aged tawnies indicating 10, 20, 30 or 40 years old represent an average age of the wine rather than the youngest in the blend. As the age indication increases, generally so does the depth, the oxidative nutty notes, and the price. This is one of my favourite 10-year-old tawnies.
1965 Tayler Fladgate Single Harvest Very Old Tawny Port • $255.99• BC Liquor Stores
Makes an extravagant gift for someone born in 1965. Smooth, luscious and long, with incredibly complex salted caramel, toasted walnut, candied orange peel, and graham cracker notes. Too expensive, but still want a treat? Try the Tayler Fladgate, 20-year-old Tawny Port, $60.99.
Prices exclusive of taxes.
