This Week's Tasting
Port plus One
January 11, 2023
Centuries before central heating, the English employed rich, warming Port to fight winter's chill. Today this fortified wine is just as effective and even more delicious than before.
 | Tonight - Port: A Tasty Way to Lower Your Heating Bill Vintage Port Sale Wed 1/11 5:00 - 6:30pm
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TONIGHT Port plus One
Please your palate & reduce your heating bill
Centuries before central heating, the English employed rich, warming Port to fight winter's chill. Today this fortified wine is just as effective and even more delicious than before. You can taste the gamut of port styles how and why this week.
Two of Port's many good qualities stand out.
A little goes a long way
It stays good (and sometimes improves) for weeks after opening. If you can't make it to the tasting, drop in any time in the next week for any remaining.
The barrels in which tawny Port is aged lighten its color and smooth its fruit, giving Better ones are aged longer. Taylor's, with ten years in barrel, is sweet and luscious.
Red ports show more vigorous red berry fruit. Graham Six Grapes is an excellent and well-priced entry to hearty and warm.
Vintage Port is expensive and needs long aging to soften its tannins. After world war two, British pubs wanted something more ready to drink than Vintage. Late Bottle Vintage port was born. Taylor Fladgate makes one of our favorites. Their 2016 LBV is a bit softer and more succulent than the vintage
Port's pinnacle is the Vintage, generally declared only three times in ten. We'll try the 2011 Graham, still a youth at 11 years old, but it will show the wine's complexity and breed
Toward the end of the last century, Dr. Andre Parce was famous for reviving the quality and interest in lightly fortified sweet Banyuls from France's southern Roussillon. On meeting him, I asked how Banyuls compared to Port. 'Port," he replied, "is an Atlantic wine. Banyuls is of Medterrerranean,' that last with a sweep of the hand, a Gallic flourish.
There was more to his answer than the geographic truism. Sunnier softer Banyuls has none of Port's rigor and structure. Grenache-based, it is an even better match for chocolate than Port. Valentine's Day is coming, after all.
White Port is more of a substitute for gin or vodka in mixed drinks to make them lighter and reduce the alcohol
Port Plus One
Quinta Val D Maria White Port (Aperitif) Round fruit, crisp aftertaste. Would you like a lemon with that? Very Good 15.99, 13.59case
Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Tawny; Color: Light reddish brown; Aroma: Light, clean, racy firm, clean, precise; Mouth: Smooth lightish clean, racy acidity, elegant, clean, firm, sweet finish; Very Good Plus $37; Case, $31.45
2002 Mas Blanc (Parce) Banyuls Collection; Color: Light red-brown; Aroma: Fresh, clean, rather rich, nuanced, and subtle; Mouth: Semi -bright meddled fruit, clean, firm, long; Excellent $40; Case, $34
Graham's Six Grapes; Color: very dark; Aroma: heady sweet, very dense, some breadth soft, a bit of nut; Mouth: thick sweet fullish, fat, light on its feet, clean pure; Very Good Plus $27.99; Case, $23.79
2016 Taylor Fladgate LBV; Aroma: Heady, rather dense, firmly structured, dense & heady; Mouth: Bright, sweet, full rounded, nice cherry acidity forward long; Very Good Plus $26.99; Case, $22.94
2011 Graham's Port; Aroma: Very heady dryish leathery full, very rich more than sweet; Mouth: Very thick, rich, dense, full, very rich sweet, very deep, lots of leather well-structured long; Excellent $118; Case, $100
One Week Port Sale
Take 10% off single bottle prices of these Ports
Free delivery on orders above $200
New Arrival: Taylor's rare 50-year-old Tawny in a presentation box
1963 Graham's Port $445
1977 Dow's Vintage Porto $179
1977 Gould Campbell (Smith Woodhouse) Magnum $325
1994 Dow's Port $145
1994 Fonseca Vintage Porto $239
1997 Dow's Port $125
1997 Graham's Port $90
1997 Taylor Fladgate Port $145
2000 Fonseca Vintage Port $125
2003 Graham's Vintage Port $119
2011 Fonseca Port $115
2011 Graham's Vintage Port $118
2011 Taylor Fladgate Port $115
2015 Cockburns Vintage Port $65
2015 Graham's Stone Terraces Port $240
2016 Croft Vintage Port $105
2016 Fonseca Vintage Port $125
2016 Graham's Vintage Port $134
2016 Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port $125
2017 Cockburn Vintage $100
2017 Croft Vintage $105
2017 Dow Vintage Port $140
2017 Fonseca Vintage $128
2017 Graham Vintage $140
2017 Taylor Fladgate Vintage $128
Dow's 40 YO Tawny Porto $199
Taylor Fladgate 20 yo Tawny $65
Taylor Golden Age 50 Year Old Tawny Port $335
Van Zeller 40-Year Tawny Port $175
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: order@federalwine.com
Please pass this on to any friends who are wine enthusiasts!
- Len Rothenberg
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downtown on orders more than $75;
in Greater Boston on orders more than $199
