VinoDuo is Lisa & Gary. Engaged in Sonoma. Honeymooned in Napa. Vacationed in
Temecula (CA), Woodinville (WA), and other off the beaten path wine regions. We’ve married our love of wine with our passion for travel, visiting lesser-known wine regions throughout the United
States. We’ve got strong opinions about the pros and cons of each wine region and this is our forum for airing and sharing them.
Port and Dessert Wines for the Holidays
Categories: DeVine Alchemy,What to drink what to buy,Wines for the Holidays
Instead of a classic Churchill or Taylor Port, why not expand your horizons with a Port or dessert wine from a small producer? They may not have the pedigree of the centuries-old wineries, but they will warm you up and send you off to bed with a smile.
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Jonathan Edwards 2005 Napa Valley Petite Sirah Port – A ruby-style Port fortified with a two-year barrel aged Vidal brandy (from Fresno, CA) then aged for 20 months |
$40 |
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Pedroncelli Vintage Port 2002 — Four different Portuguese varietals blended for a true Port |
$16 |
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Mauritson, Independence Port 2005 Rockpile — Super Portuguese-style Port made with five varietals |
$30 |
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Peachy Canyon Non-Vintage Port—A blend of vintages, starting with '02; smooth, with the Zin predominant |
$25 |
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Wilson Winery Late Harvest Zinfandel 2004 80% of this winery’s production is Zinfandel. How could they miss with this sinful dessert wine? |
$25 |
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Facelli Winery 2003 Late Harvest Syrah – The perfect accompaniment to a flourless chocolate torte |
$25 |
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Four Vines 2003 Zin/Syrah Port – Late Harvest Zin and Syrah fortified with two year aged Brandy. Layers of fruit, spice, and chocolate. |
$25 |
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Wild Coyote 2004 Zinfandel Port “Little Fawn”— Only 125 cases produced per year from their Estate Zin; fortified with Brandy for an amazing taste. Even the bottle is gorgeous. |
$55 |
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Pindar 2001 Cabernet Port — Cabernet grapes, aged in small oak barrels for 2 years and released as a Vintage Ruby Port. Chocolaty, plummy, yummy. Not sure if the ’01 is still available but the 2003 is ready and waiting. |
$15 |
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Waters Crest 2005 Night Watch (late harvest dessert wine – white vinifera). The 2006 is now available. |
$45 |
Is it possible to include a simple recipe including like one that has Port in it? I would really love to see a veal recipe with a nice port wine...thank you
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Myrna: here's a wonderful recipe for veal from Cooks.Com that uses Port wine. It should be relatively simple to follow:
2 tsp. garlic, chopped
2 tsp. shallots, chopped
2 c. mushrooms, sliced
1 c. port wine
2 c. brown gravy
8 oz. cooked spinach
4 eggs, hard-boiled
8 oz. thin-sliced Prosciutto
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Any of the above wines termed Port are not in fact Port wines. They are only dessert wines and soon will be required due to new laws, to remove the name "port" from their labels. It's more than semantics, it's protecting a name tied to a history, and working to not confuse consumers. If I tell you what a port tastes like, I know that it cannot taste like Cabernet...Should not...California dessert wines are wonderful, and I love many of the ones above, but let's keep the name Port out of them. It's like calling a Spanish wine "Napa valley Bull's Blood" I know that would confuse people too!
Cheers,
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Would it get us off the hook if we plead guilty but note that we use the names the winemakers give their creations? If it says "Late Harvest Port" on the bottle, that's what we call it. Of course, as explained on the site Portwine.Com, Port is "a fortified red or white wine made with the grape varieties that grow specifically in the Douro River Valley in northern Portugal." Gary, a huge Port fan (and we mean "real" Port from Portugal), would be the first to acknowledge the definition. However, for casual wine lovers who regularly say they love Champagne, when they mean a sparking wine from California and don't care about the difference, getting picky about nomenclature is one of the things they hate about us wine snobs.
We went to your web site Catavina Ryan, and will certainly return to learn more about Spanish and Portuguese wines. You may want to check out our posts " A Spanish Diamond in the Rough" and " Three Whites, Three Reds," to see some of the Spanish wines we've loved.
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Hey great response. I ask only that even if the name is correct that we bloggers work to mention and infact demand that winemakers stop the confusion! As to the Champange point, we are wine snobs for a reason and that is we love wine, and if we at times need to be preceived as snobs so that we may help sectors of the industry as a whole then I'm all for it!
Glad to hear to hear you checked out Catavino.net and we hope to see you over there soon...BTW if you like port sign up for our newsletter and you'll be able to download a report with 50 or so ports we tasted last month!
Cheers, Ryan
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