Wine talk Of Port and cheese
One of the great things for us wine lovers about spending Christmas in Portugal is the great selection of Port wines we have so readily available.
Most supermarkets have at least a reasonable selection of Ruby, Tawny and LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) Ports, but good wine shops such as Garrafeira Soares and, of course, Apolónia supermarkets have somewhat mind-boggling selections.
At Apolónia, there are literally hundreds of different Ports to choose from, starting at under €10 for a basic Ruby up to many hundreds of euros per bottle for some of the better vintages.
But to keep things sensible and within a price range that should work for most Christmas Day cheeseboards, Vintage Ports are being excluded from this article.
Let’s start with LBVs; in fact, a good LBV is probably the next best thing to a Vintage when thinking of pairing with strong cheeses such as Stilton or some of Portugal’s offerings such as a nice buttery Serra or Azeitão.
A couple of weeks ago, one of the UK’s leading wine writers, Jancis Robinson, wrote about fortified wines for Christmas in her FT Weekend column and Portugal got a good showing. The LBV she singled out was Quinta do Noval 2016, but I suppose she was limited to what is readily available in the UK.
By coincidence, I had a bottle of this at home and found it rather disappointing. In fact, Jancis even said that when she tried it last year, she thought it was still a bit too young but should be ready by now. Well, at around €22, it is a decent LBV, but it does not come even close in terms of overall quality to the LBV pictured here from Rozès (LBV 2014), costing €19.95 at Apolónia.
If I were to be getting in just one Port wine for Christmas this year, and wanted to spend around €20, this would be my Port of choice. It is seducingly fruity on the nose, rich and deeply flavoured, with a long and lush finish.
Rozès is part of the Vranken Pommery Monopole group of Champagne fame and…
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