Month: February 2016

One of life’s great pleasures is enjoying a great meal. A great meal with wine pairings is like an opera. There is an overture or appetizer. It gives you an insight to what is coming. It lets you hear a few notes that will enlighten your senses. A good wine pairing and an appetizer should start your tastebuds dancing. The French term amuse bouche translates to entertain your mouth.

The next course sets the tone for opera. It is the direction that the chef or conductor will take you on, or the journey of the meal. Is a midnight ride on the orient express of an Asian style soup with a terrific Riesling from the Mosel? Or an earthy beet salad with a crisp rosè from the Provence? Just let the notes of the musicians pour over your pallet. Drink in the food note by note.

As the song grows in intensity, you feel the urge, the clawing of anticipation for the main course. Will it be the call of a soprano lilting sweet notes with sea bass and a lovely Chardonnay or the deep tone of a baritone shaking the walls like a fine piece of roasted prime rib of beef and a well aged Bordeaux?

Now that you have enjoyed the courses and beverages, your mind will wander. Is this over, is the music done? No, there is the crescendo. You wait for it because you know it is how the show is supposed to conclude, but you hope it does not disappoint.

As you get to the end of the meal, you are often presented with a sweet end, a crescendo in the form of dessert. So how does all of this help make the end leave you humming the songs you heard? Begging for more? The answer is port.

Port is a fortified wine from Portugal and generally from red wine grapes and usually sweet. Port is available as either a vintage wine or a blend of wines from multiple vintages. It is has a very broad range of types and styles.

Port pairs exceedingly well with everything from blue cheese to flourless chocolate cake and dried stone fruit. There is a stereotype of middle aged men in a room with dark wood walls in front of a crackling fire smoking big cigars and drinking port, but it is much more versatile than that. Before we hear the “fat lady sing” at our opera, let’s take a closer look at port wine.

Like many wines, port has a wide variation in quality and price. Ignoring the supermarket swill, the entry point is ruby port. It is a blend of wines and meant to be consumed right away. It tends to have enough residual sugar to be pleasing without being over sweet. A reserve or late bottled vintage are a bit further aged than ruby and the better ports of this type will age for a generation or more.

A second option is tawny port. Tawny ports are aged a minimum of two years before bottling and have a milder flavor. Think of ruby ports as having a flavor profile of blackberry, cinnamon or dark chocolate. Tawny port is more caramel, fig and hazelnut. Both ruby and tawny port have some of the same grapes, it is the color, flavors and blending that make them different.

The third port to consider are the vintage and blended vintage ports. The vintage ports generally cover every calendar year and if you have the access and the budget, there is no better milestone birthday gift for a wine lover, than a bottle of vintage port from ones birth year.

The blended vintage port are generally 10, 20 and 30 year. These are ports where the wines come from more than one year and are blended together and aged for the years on the label. Depending on the port producer, these can go out 50 or more years. Bottles of port from the 1800’s routinely show up in wine auctions to this day. Since the fortified wine making process includes heating the wine to concentrate the sugars, these wines, unopened, can last over 100 years.

So if you want to end your food opera on a high note, here’s a few tips. First how to serve port is as crucial as any question. In a small port glass, not a snifter is a must. A proper pour is 1.5 to 2 ounces per person. Lastly, ruby port should be 55-60 degrees, tawny port should be served at 50-55 degrees and vintage port 40-50 degrees.

Port is a versitle singer in the opera and pairs well with a number of food choices. A few of my favorite options truly are a world tour. If you are feeling European, pair your port with a cheese course. Most Ports will perform well with a mix of soft, blue and sheep or goat cheese.

If you are looking for a pairing that supports a more traditional dessert, port wine and chocolate, sing in the same key. A flourless chocolate cake or chocolate mousse will bring your dinners to a glorious end and should earn you shouts of “bravo” and maybe even a standing ovation!

One last option is simply some seasonal fruits. Pears, fresh figs and apricots will pair exceeding well with the different port options. Be careful to choose your port than your dessert; after all port is the star here and should not be upstaged by a prima donna dessert.

The final few notes on this opera is how to choose and store a port. If you think of ruby and tawny as entry points and reserve, vintage and multiple vintage as more advanced options, you will be well suited. Many dinners will be reluctant to share your port fascination because of perception or bad prior experience with port. If you remember proper glassware, temperatures and serving size you will make them raving fans.

Lastly, port is not like brandy or cognac in that it won’t stay fresh and delightful for long periods of time after it has been opened. Port will last up to four weeks after opening if well corked and stored in a cool dark place like the rear portion of your refrigerator. Port comes in so many different sizes, so buy and open what you can consume in this timeframe.

Port wine is a great way to finish your meal. It is able to be a fine accompanyment to your operatic dinning and wine pairing achievement; but be careful because it just might steal the show!

The most common question asked when you first are seated at the table of most restaurants is “would you like to see the wine list?” This simple question opens up a world of opportunities and challenges all at the same time. My plan is to give you a few tips to navigate through these challenges without too much trouble.

The first tip is to not be afraid to ask for help. The servers in finer establishments have generally experienced some level of beverage service training. If you open the list and don’t see any familiar choices of wines you have had before, take a chance and ask the server if they have any recommendations. In addition to offering plausible deniability, it might give you an opportunity to try something you might otherwise have never considered.

If you would prefer to take that task on your own, look for a few cues. So let’s break this down to three simple elements. First what are you trying to pair with your wine. A simple survey of your dinners will lead you to a part of the wine list you need to search. Some restaurant wine lists more resemble War and Peace than a short list of libations. Once you have a selection of options that are more manageable you can further focus you choices based on a recognizable name or a price range.

Your second element of choice is to pick based on wine region or vintage. It is often said if “it grows together it goes together.” So if you and your fellow dinners are having an traditional Tuscan italian entrée, pick a wine from Tuscany and you can feel confident that it will pair beautifully with your food.

My third suggestion is to create some “go to” options for yourself. This is utilizing a little bit of know how in the world of wine, but still on the basic level. I suggest that you become familiar with three or four wine producers and maybe three or four vintages. Vintage charts are abundant in the world of wine and being able to select a wine based on factors that a particular year was a good year, lowers the risk of falling to pick a good wine. This is not 100% foolproof, but it can certainly give you a great hint in to the viability of a particular wine and food pairing.

My third option for you is make it an “open book test!” In the current environment a significant number of restaurants list not only their food but also their wine menus on their website. This will allow you to find some great options in advance that you can have in your mind before you are ever presented with the wine list. It may even evoke a course and wine pairing?!?

My last point is you can always skip the test entirely. Before you jump to a conclusion that I am suggesting no wine, I am suggesting the option of corkage. What is corkage you ask; it is the practice of a restaurant allowing dinners to bring a “bottle from home” to the restaurant versus purchasing one from the establishment. There are a few things to keep in mind here.

First, check in advance to determine if the restaurant allows you to BYOB. Sometimes there are limitations on what you can bring as well. Generally, anything on their current for sale list may be excluded. Also, there will be a fee charged by the restaurant to serve you your own wine. It is typically about $20, so well worth the price. My final thought here, is if you choose to bring a bottle, you probably want to have some feel for the cuisine of the restaurant. In other words, bring a great red to a steakhouse!

So here’s a few final thoughts on ordering wine in a restaurant that will help you gain comfort and confidence with the process. If the restaurant has a wine steward, or better yet, a sommelier, let them help. The training for these jobs focuses on creating a great beverage experience for the guest. Your role is to tell that person what you and the table are ordering and a budget for your purchase. The wine professional should be able to offer several choices. My other comment is do not be afraid to explore the world of wine. If you are offered a selection that you have never tried, why not try it now?

So next time you are out for dinner and the question is asked, “would you like to see the wine list,” answer with a resounding “yes!”