Pass the Port

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Pass the Port

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1darrow
Jun 15, 2007, 1:55 pm

Drinking port with blue Stilton is an English tradition. I have also been served Stilton with Kirsch poured into the hollowed out centre of a whole cheese. Today I had some Coeur-de-Lion Camembert with a glass of Taylor's vintage port and it was delicious!

Any port drinkers in the rest of the world? What do you like to drink with your cheese?

2PossMan
Edited: Jun 15, 2007, 2:30 pm

darrow: I love blue stilton and have it often. And as you say port is an excellent drink to go with it. Nice to follow with a pre-bed liqueur (Drambuie, green Chartreuse, Benedictine). Must say that if I eat out (not a regular practise) the cheeseboard is my usual choice of finish although the contents can vary from the really bland to the spectacular. Mind you the local health police are already deciding to put warning labels on alcohol and there are mutterings about cheese — especially blue ones and those made (like real Camembert) from unpasteurised milk.
By the way I don't like sweet wines with a meal so my taste for port after is a little surprising. But another sweet, heavy wine I like is Malaga. Apparently very much liked by the Victorians but I got a taste for it when I lived in the province. More or less impossible to buy now here in UK.

3twacorbies
Jun 15, 2007, 2:40 pm

Nice topic! I do enjoy a good (or, and more likely, cheap) port, but it is difficult to find here in the States, even though I'm not far from Napa. I was heartened to see a sign up on Fillmore St. here in San Francisco advertising that "We Have Port Here Older Than You." I need to make a trip back there. It is tough to find good port on this side of the pond. Can anyone recommend any that they've found in the States, or that they know are exported here and readily available? I imagine really good Blue Stinton is hard to find here as well...

4darrow
Edited: Jun 15, 2007, 5:02 pm

We have a good choice of ports in the UK but anything older that 20 years is expensive. It's much cheaper in Portugal. I found a Warre's 1965 vintage in a small supermarket at a give-away price.

#2 I must look out for Malaga next time I go to Spain, Possman.

5reading_fox
Jun 18, 2007, 8:12 am

Another port fan - but only recently introduced to it, so I don't know much of the differences between the various types.

6ExVivre
Aug 1, 2007, 5:13 pm

I go through port phases. It's always great after dinner, but at some point in the winter chill it becomes my sipping drink of choice.

It seems to be a fairly rare drink choice in these parts (Wisconsin). My wine shop was planning a port tasting and never met their 10 person minimum to hold it. On my last trip North, the chef/owner remembered that I enjoyed port and comped me a new tawny she brought in. I hadn't been there for at least 6 months!

7ExVivre
Aug 1, 2007, 5:19 pm

Oops, I forgot about the cheese part! *shame*

Anything creamy and pungent is nice. For Christmas dinner last year we did a cheese and wine tasting course with aged cheddar, creamy Camembert, Stilton and a Parmigiano Reggiano with a 20-year tawny port (Warre's?), Veuve-Clicquot Champagne and eiswein.