Port season

It’s Port season. Nothing is better on a cold winter night than a nice glass of port. It warms you up from the inside out. I am currently working my way through two bottles of port. At home I am slowly working my way through a bottle of Churchill’s White Porto. This bottle surprised me. I got it from my favorite wine merchant who said I would enjoy it. I have had white port before and it has usually been sweeter and more syrupy. This Churchill’s is much sharper than I anticipated. I get the alcohol much quicker than I get the sugar, but it is still very good. In flavor it is much more like a regular port but in texture it is more like a wine. It is thin and waterish.

The other bottle I am currently working through, with help, is a bottle of Osborne Porto, Ten Years Old Tawny Port. This is a good, drinkable port. It is quick to go through and is good at the end of a long day. It is a good reasonably priced port that is not hard to find.

I do have on reserve a bottle of port from Flag Hill Winery in Lee NH. The first bottle I had of this stuff made me fall in love with it. It was one of, if not the, best Port I have ever had. I know it is not from Portugal so technically I should call it a fortified wine but I think that difference is now common enough between Porto’s and Ports. The second bottle I had of this port was not as good. I think they got their measurements mixed up and added more brandy to this one, it kind of seemed like all brandy. I drank it anyway. But I wonder which was the fluke, the good one or the bad one. If I open the bottle I have now and it is good, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get another good one. If I open it and it is bad I know I’ll never be able to get another good one. Or what if I drink it and it is good but that was the last good one around. So many concerns. What good is port that is just sitting there not being consumed? I’ll have to drink it eventually. But for now the Churchill’s and Osborne are doing just fine.