A Port and Cheese Evening

[OzPiper]

A mate arrived back from London with a few things in his luggage last week.
So 3 of us gathered at his home for an evening of Port and cheese

50 yo Kopke White Port, 50 yo Graham’s Tawny and a 1977 Taylor’s Vintage Port (this last half bottle from a friend who thought we needed another port as a comparison)

Montgomery Cheddar, Stichelton and a Dolce Latte from London, and a French soft white from a Sydney affineur





The 1977 developed in the glass and was very good after an hour in the decanter.
But was outshone by the 50 yo Kopke white port.
The Grahams 50 yo Tawny was SO SOOOO good.

PS. I really DO NOT eat and drink like this every week

 

[Brendan]

A reply to your PS ; that is something that needs to be rectified - you CAN if you try hard enough.

And we will be here, awaiting photos

 

[Buckeyestime]

I really should not have opened this thread right before bed. Your choices look and sound outstanding, though likely beyond my palette. Cheers.

 

[Servant King]

I really DO NOT eat and drink like this every week

 

[OzPiper]

I really should not have opened this thread right before bed. Your choices look and sound outstanding, though likely beyond my palette. Cheers.

Blessed with very generous friends

 

[anotherbob]

View attachment 383459

key word is every. that one time with that flu.

 

[SBC]

I've mentioned before that although I know some parts of the pipe tobacco, big beer, and whisk(e)y worlds reasonably well, I know almost nothing of wine and don't anticipate that changing; however, if there were one swath of the vino world that I wish that I could dive into, it would be port.

I first realized this at a whiskey tasting. A friend there had just discovered tawny port, and brought a 20 year tawny for us to try after the whiskeys, just for fun. Good golly gosh did I fall head over heels in love.

I've still never tried anything at the level you're talking about here. I've picked up a number of bottom shelf tawnies, and tried a couple more 20s, but the most I've ever splurged was for one glass of a 30 year tawny (I forget now which -- it would have been one of the more common ones, like Graham's, Taylor, or Sandeman).

Now cheese -- cheese I can get some decent iterations of. About an hour from me, in Marinette, WI, is a hokey little cheese shop that claims to be the odlest continously operating one in the US. They age cheddar for decades there, and are sometimes generous with free samples up to 30 year old. Now that gets me excited.

 

[OzPiper]

I got into port at college.
Our Rector tried to turn us into young gentlemen with proper drinking habits instead of a bunch of beer swillers, which most of us were.
Wednesdays was wine night at table, with sherry before and port after dinner in the library.
As a poor student subsisting on my parent’s handouts, a bottle of port could be eked out over several days - if you managed to hide it from your scrounging friends. A bottle of wine would only do for a meal.

I managed to convert a few friends to port many years ago by putting on a port tasting of Taylor’s and Graham’s vintage ports - 1977, 1970, 1963 and 1945.
We have shared many great bottles since.

Until last year, the oldest tawny ports in Graham‘s and Taylor’s list was their 40 year olds.
Both houses recently bought a couple of their Portuguese competitors with warehouses full of aged and ageing tawny ports.
I suspect, but have not confirmed, that these 50year olds are from their Portuguese subsidiaries.

My favourite tawny ports are the 20year olds.
I think at that age they show signs of maturity yet retaining lots of fruit character.

 

[The Benedictine]

I love Port. Sure it's a dessert wine but it's good for anytime. I mainly stick to local vineyards for my wines.

 

[OzPiper]

Now cheese -- cheese I can get some decent iterations of. About an hour from me, in Marinette, WI, is a hokey little cheese shop that claims to be the odlest continously operating one in the US. They age cheddar for decades there, and are sometimes generous with free samples up to 30 year old. Now that gets me excited.

Now cheese - that’s a huge weakness of mine.
One regret of age is becoming increasingly intolerant of lactose these past few years.
But if confronted with a tempting cheeseboard, it’s eat first and damn the consequences

Luckily for us in Oz, we now produce a few world class cheeses.
And at long last, are allowed imports of unpasteurised cheese.
Not only that, but we are allowed to personally import or bring into the country (in our luggage) up to 10kg of cheese. So long as we declare it as “personal consumption”
A far cry from the days of dinky rounds of plasticky factory Camembert and Brie and tinned Bulgarian feta

Such is the UK/EU centric food culture in Oz we, sadly, see very little of your (US) cheese here.

 

[OzPiper]

I love Port. Sure it's a dessert wine but it's good for anytime. I mainly stick to local vineyards for my wines.

The earliest days of wine in Australia was heavily skewed towards production of fortified wine (sherry and ports) for export to the Mother country.
Table wine was a minuscule fraction of the wine produced as the populace much preferred beer.
Table wines were mainly a preserve of migrants from the continent and the affluent classes.
It was only in the 1970s that production of table wine overtook fortifieds In Oz.

Most of the early vines that were imported into Australia came from France and Italy.
Hence most Oz ports are made with Shiraz rather than Portuguese grapes. Resulting in fruitier and fuller wines than the typical Portuguese drops.

 

[georged]

I know little about cheese except that I've long thought that the best way to eat it is "straight". With a handful of exceptions like a well-made quattro formaggi pizza, mixing it adding it, blending it, etc. with other things is never as tasty as when it's alone.

Then, bites of it alternated with sips of good wine? Not just yeah, but hell yeah.


Which means I appreciate your photos a lot.

 

[OzPiper]

I know little about cheese except that I've long thought that the best way to eat it is "straight". With a handful of exceptions like a well-made quattro formaggi pizza, mixing it adding it, blending it, etc. with other things is never as tasty as when it's alone.

Then, bites of it alternated with sips of good wine? Not just yeah, but hell yeah.


Which means I appreciate your photos a lot.

Can’t agree more.

A piece of apple or pear or a few grapes perhaps.
Fresh new season walnuts, when they are still sweet, go well.
I do enjoy a dab of honey with Stilton occasionally - that sweet and salty thing.

 

[carlomarx]

Will please someone recommend a port and or sherry for a fortified wine neophyte?

 

[carlomarx]

Will someone please recommend a port and or sherry for a wine neophyte?

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

Now cheese -- cheese I can get some decent iterations of. About an hour from me, in Marinette, WI, is a hokey little cheese shop that claims to be the odlest continously operating one in the US. They age cheddar for decades there, and are sometimes generous with free samples up to 30 year old. Now that gets me excited.

I love our state for the cheese

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

PS. I really DO NOT eat and drink like this every week

Well that sounds like a problem you should be working hard to solve!

 

[OzPiper]

Will someone please recommend a port and or sherry for a wine neophyte?

A wood-aged tawny port is a good starting point. They come at different ages - 5yo, 10yo, 20yo, etc. A 10yr should be nice and fruity, but my favourite is the 20yo which still retains fruit, but has sufficient mature character. Tawny ports will keep in the fridge for some weeks after opening.

Vintage ports are bottled at 2 years and need several years in the cellar to start showing their best. They should be drunk within 2-3 days of opening.

Graham, Fonseca, Taylor, Warre, Cockburn, Sandeman and Quinta do Noval are reputable port houses.

Sherry - a plethora of styles
Dry: fino, manzanilla, amontillado, palo cortado, olorosso
Sweet: Pedro Ximenez (PX), moscatel
Also "milk" and "cream" sherries which are dry sherry sweetened with the addition of PX. Not to be sniffed at - Gonzalez Byass Matusalem (aged >30years) is very, very good

Gonzalez Byass is the largest sherry bodega. Good to excellent sherries from young and commercial to their very old rarities
Valdespino is THE sherry bodega. Excellent all around
Equipo Navazos bottles hand-picked selections across the styles. Some rare, extremely old bottlings

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

Can’t agree more.

A piece of apple or pear or a few grapes perhaps.
Fresh new season walnuts, when they are still sweet, go well.
I do enjoy a dab of honey with Stilton occasionally - that sweet and salty thing.

I love a straight up Brie and butter on a French baguette. Simple, but so damn good.

 

[carlomarx]

A wood-aged tawny port is a good starting point. They come at different ages - 5yo, 10yo, 20yo, etc. A 10yr should be nice and fruity, but my favourite is the 20yo which still retains fruit, but has sufficient mature character. Tawny ports will keep in the fridge for some weeks after opening.

Vintage ports are bottled at 2 years and need several years in the cellar to start showing their best. They should be drunk within 2-3 days of opening.

Graham, Fonseca, Taylor, Warre, Cockburn, Sandeman and Quinta do Noval are reputable port houses.

Sherry - a plethora of styles
Dry: fino, manzanilla, amontillado, palo cortado, olorosso
Sweet: Pedro Ximenez (PX), moscatel
Also "milk" and "cream" sherries which are dry sherry sweetened with the addition of PX. Not to be sniffed at - Gonzalez Byass Matusalem (aged >30years) is very, very good

Gonzalez Byass is the largest sherry bodega. Good to excellent sherries from young and commercial to their very old rarities
Valdespino is THE sherry bodega. Excellent all around
Equipo Navazos bottles hand-picked selections across the styles. Some rare, extremely old bottlings

Thank you, OzPiper, much obliged.