Feeling flush? Have a wine lover in your midst and you wish you could figure out a great gift? One item that wine lovers lust after but don’t often buy is a great bottle of vintage port.
After many years of hard research, including a couple of trips to the Douro River in Portugal where they make Port, I have come up with a favorite and I offer it to you so you can make a happy person of the wine lover in your life. The brand is Taylor-Fladgate and, though you can find their Vintage Porto wines for thousands of dollars per bottle, the current vintage, 2018, is generally available for under $125 and makes a great introduction.
Many people think you can open a port, pull a couple of glasses worth, reseal the bottle, and try it again a year later. That is not true. Port is wine, not liquor, and as such needs to be drunk within a couple of days. One winery owner told us that he thinks it should be consumed all in one sitting. Whichever way you do it, this is one wine I can heartily recommend. It pairs well with a blue cheese like Roquefort or Gorgonzola, or pork roast. If you drink it for dessert, be sure to serve a tiny side dish of whole almonds.
This article appears in December 20 • 2024.