Winter Warmers

[helenas]

I have a bottle of tawny port that i bought to be used in some recipe, but i never tried to drink it.

But couple of days ago i wanted something sweet and comforting, so i poured a glass of this thing, and now i'm hooked.

So please, share your favorite port and sherries to fight winter cold and, even more important, blues.

[GordonCooks]

I usually enjoy a nice vintage port (in lieu of dessert) after a fat steak/Bordeaux outing. I also enjoy nice aged Madeira with your typical cheese course. I'm not much of a sherry person but I just probably haven't had the right sherry. For a bottle to keep open - Taylor Fladgate 20 yr. old (maybe 25.00 - 30.00) it will last a month (not much more). A fine Vintage port is best opened and consumed with friends. Fine Tawny or Ruby ports can be had for less. Rubies are the least expensive as a rule and Tawnys are the next step up (though softer in character) Stick with good guys - Taylor, Warre, Cockburn, Dow, Quinta du Noval (my fave vintage) Sandeman. My bud raves about some Australian ports he's been drinking lately - I haven't indulged yet.

[southern girl]

Don't forget Neipoort tawny.

[nightscotsman]

For an amazingly dense, rich, deep flavor in a sweet sherry with a finish that goes on forever, you have to try the "Emelin" from Lustau. One of the most complex things I ever sipped.

[LaNiña]

Is it a PX?

[Sandra Levine]

My favorite is Taylor-Fladgate 10-year old tawny port. It is somewhat sweeter and mor caramel-ly in a good way than the same compnay's 20-year old port and less expensive, too. It's wonderful with walnuts and dates.

[nightscotsman]

Is it a PX?

Please excuse my ignorance, but I assume you mean Pedro Ximenenz? I don't think so - it says it's a "Moscatel Superior"? F. Paul Pacult from the Spirit Journal gave it 5-stars and his "highest recommendation". Suprisingly inexpensive - I've found it well below $20.

[Beachfan]

My favorite is vintage port of course. After that, it's 20, 30 or 40 year Grahams Tawny.

But if you like this stuff, some incredible values are coming out of Australia. My favorite is Yalumba Muscat Show Reserve (around $12 for 375 ml). The Wine Advocate just mentioned some by Buller for the same price that they raved about.

[Tonyfinch]

The characterisation of sherry and port as Winter drinks to keep out the cold is the sort of notion that has the sherry and port industries grinding their collective teeth in frustration.

The sherry producers have long been trying to shake off this image and of course down in the Jerez region fino and manzanilla are drunk widely cold as an aperitif or throughout a meal of fritto misto or other fish and seafood dishes. Much of it is served straight from the barrel and is fantastically fresh and refreshing. Try a bottle of decent fino or manza in place of your sauvingnon blanc next time you have a fish dish-a revelation and half the price.

In the Douro white and tawny ports are drunk as thirst quenchers all day,mixed with soda or lemonade. Port is drunk in massive quantities throughout France purely as an aperitif. It is virtually unknown there as an after dinner drink.

I've drunk chilled tawny port with pates and terrines and with calves liver and duck dishes which have a sweet or fruit based sauce which clashes with dry wines.

These wines are unfashionable but fantastic and relatively cheap with a whole range of brilliant uses. Go for it.

[mogsob]

I love port and sherry (especially if the port is Fonseca and the sherry is Lustau), but I wouldn't call them "winter warmers". In fact, I tend to drink more sherry in the summer (a nice chilled fino before dinner is perfect). If you want a truly great bottle of port, Fonseca's 1997 vintage is fairly available. It's expensive and addictive, but probably one of the best values in wine for my money.

Now if you want a winter warmer, we can talk Calvados . . . .

[Miss J]

I love chilled fino. But from what I understand, it's highly unfashionable in the UK - I've read more than a few references to it being the preserve of the staid & elderly. Which I find strange, as I would have thought that sweet sherry was much more "old-fashioned."

What gives with the low status of dry sherry in the UK?

[Gavin Jones]

Habitually served warm out of a 'cut-glass decanter' by a relative who smells of pee is enough to dissuade all but the hardiest. Same goes for sweet - well Harvey's Bristol Cream.

(I'm sure this strategy is enough to dissuade one's irritating younger relatives from looking for the bottle in the fridge.)

[Charlene Leonard]

and served in those strange little sherry glasses which you see all the time on Coronation Street.

[Miss J]

Habitually served warm out of a 'cut-glass decanter'

Oh God, of course -- a couple of weeks ago, I had to stop a hotel bartender from pouring room temperature Tio Pepe into a sherry glass.

I thought it was just him, though - you're telling me this is NORMAL?

[StephenT]

I love chilled Fino and Manzanilla and drink both by the glass when cooking, as an aperitif or with a meal if it's appropriate. As for why sherry seems to be unfashionable, this is what I think... could be wrong...

Dry sherry is believed exclusively to be the drink of the "Jeeves, I do believe I shall have a dry sherry before dinner" upper-class twats.

Sweet sherry is believed exclusively to be the drink of sozzled old ladies and of students who want to get drunk and don't like anything else.

So both are avoided. Which is a great shame. Whenever I mention sherry to anyone, they tend to assume I'm talking about sweet sherry and make a face that implies they had a bad experience with it as a student.

So it boils down to the fact that people don't really know much about it... I'm sure that it they did they'd change their minds.

[Gavin Jones]

The authentically ur-english prefer all drinks (excluding tea, horlicks) served at the ambient temperature of a seaside boarding house in March i.e. too cold for red wine, too hot for white wine or 'continental lager'.

To conspicuously demur on this issue is to mark oneself out as the very worst sort of foreigner.

[Tonyfinch]

All those comments are true but in addition people appear to believe that sherry and ports are like spirits in that they last forever.

In fact once opened they deteriorate fairly rapidly so if granny serves you some from a bottle that's been opened from last Xmas it's gonna be OFF! Same goes for the majority of stuff that's served in pubs.

[Miss J]

This is true - I remember when I first noticed the "best before" date on a bottle of fino, and was struck by the sheer amount I was going to have to drink in order to get the best of the bottle.

[StephenT]

This is true - I remember when I first noticed the "best before" date on a bottle of fino, and was struck by the sheer amount I was going to have to drink in order to get the best of the bottle. 

Usually says "keep refrigerated and drink within a week of opening" doesn't it? When I buy a bottle there's not much chance of it lasting a week

[Miss J]

Absolutely. But I had picked up a litre bottle at Malaga airport, and at the time didn't know any other committed fino drinkers.

[Tonyfinch]

In the interests of research I had a couple of glasses of Lustau's Dry Oloroso before dinner last night. What a lovely wine. Amber-gold,rich,nutty,complex,sweet hints but a lovely dry finish with a tang-about £7.99. I'm beginning to think that good sherry is probably just about the best value wine in the world.

[StephenT]

In the interests of research I had a couple of glasses of Lustau's Dry Oloroso before dinner last night. What a lovely wine. Amber-gold,rich,nutty,complex,sweet hints but a lovely dry finish with a tang-about £7.99. I'm beginning to think that good sherry is probably just about the best value wine in the world.

Tony, sounds like that's an area of research I'd like to contribue to. Where did you procure the subject matter?

Although I do think that more people should drink sherry as it's really great, I'm quite happy for the prices to stay lowish... not sure they would if more people drank it.

[Tonyfinch]

Stephen. Bought it at my local Oddbins which does a range of Lustau sherries. Not sure if every Oddbins branch does them. They also stock sherries from Valdespino and I believe they do a Hidalgo Manzanilla.

If your'e ever in Safeways the Babadillo Manza is lovely and fresh for about 6 quid. Waitrose do their own Solera range which is also brilliant value and which is always winning competition awards.

Tio Pepe is getting a big promotional push at the moment,although I find it a little galumphing compared to some other (and cheaper) finos, but the Gonzalez Byass Matusalem is as good a dessert wine as you'll drink and although not cheap at about £20 is still good value compared to many competitors in its class.

[Adam Balic]

I'm beginning to think that good sherry is probably just about the best value wine in the world.

Correct. Spend four quid for terrible stuff or six quid for excellence. What other wine gives you the oppertunity to do that. Hidalgo PX is good, some othe the others lack acid balance and they end up tasting rather cloying.

As a winter warmer I like Whisky, Australian fortified wine, decent quality Malaga (not the New style light muscat, the rarer old style stuff) and decent maderia. Infact maderia is a fanastic drink, pity it is even less popular then all the other fortifieds. All drank with a slice of panforte and a Cox's orange pippin to nibble, a good book and a nice fire.

[Tonyfinch]

Jane Maquitty,who I usually rate,reviewed a Madeira in The Times a while back,describing it as "ideal with a piece of cake for elevenses".

I wrote to her (no,I very rarely write to critics) and asked her if she actually lived in a world where people drank Madeira and ate cake at eleven o'clock in the morning and that maybe she could offer a few more useful ideas for wines like Madeira, apart from slugging it into the cooking that is.

To her credit,she replied with a Mea Culpa letter saying that she would do so next time she wrote about the Old World Fortifieds. I don't know whether she has but it showed how the old stereotype images of these wines still prevails and how they need to break out of them if they're going to become anything other than minority curiosities outside of their home patch.