Just discovering port

[jazzylee77]

Okay, I just registered and see that there is a bit of a delay till an administrator reviews and I get an email. So I am composing my introductory post on notepad. Perhaps I will save some embarrassment when I edit later!

Warning..this could be long and convoluted.

Alcoholism

I am almost 50. (That makes me 49 for you arithmetically challenged souls) I quit drinking about 20 years ago. I drank everything. I was a travelling musician; everyone wanted to buy me a drink, and I accepted. Mostly beer, but sometimes by the end of the night I would try anything,literally including what was left on the bar mat. I would, to the patrons delight, say things to the bartender like "Give me a drop out of every bottle!!" and she would oblige... Or "make another long island ice tea... but this time skip the cola and sour mix." No one considered me an alcoholic, but I had my style of binge drinking. I knew I needed to quit, and attempts to cut back or otherwise regulate my drinking had no permanent affect. (having a similar problem with dieting now!) But I eventually turned the switch in my head and quit, with noticable life improvements. (more money in my pockets, weight loss, more productive use of my time, more energy)

Okay, that story could go on and on... 20 years later I only had a sip of wine now and then, tasting my dates glass. But this past summer I dated a chef. The continuous dining out and pairing of wines with foods, reading about wines... well I started drinking a glass or 2 every evening. And I feel the more mature self I am is handling it ok. And yet I bring this up at the outset, since it is a possible catastrophe in the waiting.

I recently was introduced to a great restaurant and a meal that finished with creme brulee and my first port, a glass of tawny port. A 20 year Taylor Fladgate. I was amazed at the tasty fruity alcohol fireworks that toyed with my brain. I've been searching and reading about Ports ever since. I stopped in a wine store the next day and asked if they had a tawny port. (That was all I could remember of what I drank after that meal) The only bottle of tawny they had was a Jonesy. Yes... I know now... Australian is not Port... but port.

Later, trying to recreate the dessert/port experience in my bachelor pad... (go ahead laugh...I don't care:)) I ordered a pizza from Papa Johns and this apple dessert thing. I ate about half the pizza, drinking a glass of what wine I forget, then poured a half glass of Jonesy and prepared for dessert. After a bite of the dessert I raised the port to my nose...mostly acetone or alcohol, but I did notice some caramel... not quite like my first experience, then I drank. UGH!!! The dessert was sweeter than my first experience, and the port was some cloying sweet overkill of nose burning caramel afterward. I was shocked with how it differed from my high expectations. Yet I tried a small bit of it for several consecutive nights (without a sweet dessert), I continued to read about Ports and a few reviews of Jonesy. Gradually it grew on me. I think it mellowed quite a bit about 10 days after opening too. Now it is a refreshing caramely satisfying dessert in a glass.

Since then I have purchased a 10 year old Taylor Fladgate (it wasn't till after that purchase that I talked to my date and was reminded it was the 20 year old Taylor that I fell in love with) I haven't opened that 10 year old yet, still nursing the Jonesy. But today I did a couple wine tastings and ended up at the wine shop that only had the Jonesy before. This evening they had a few more Ports and after a flight of whites and a taste of red I asked if they had a Port open. The gal said no, but I could buy a bottle and drink part of it here. (Hey what do I know? I'm just getting back into this wine drinking thing...) So I selected a Dow's Crusted Porto, bottled 2002. Giving it a whiff, I still have trouble smelling past the alcohol, but it seemed there was more fruity floral to it than the Jonesy... so far so good. I take a sip... Yeah!! That's what I want! I was jubilant. Sorry, my descriptive ablities are not yet refined, but it was a cool hot splash of fiery fruity everything! I offered a taste to the 3 ladies to my left, they loved it more than anything they had that night. The bar-keep asked for a taste then even though she said she didn't really care for port... she loved it too!

I'm just glad my first experience, wasn't a fluke!

[DRT]

Hi,

Welcome to

It is good to read that you already recognise the difference between port and Port

You have come to the right place. If you read the reviews of our many port tasting events you will see that we pride ourselves on drinking in moderation.

Where do you live and what should we call you?

Derek

[jazzylee77]

I'm from a small town in Ohio (must have not hit enter on that page... fixed it)

Feel free to call me Lee.

We were pouring that crusted Port straight from the bottle at the wine bar. I have since filtered it, though there really wasn't much sediment in it. I filtered through a coffee filter (had to poke a few little fork holes in it so it wouldn't take an eternity) It was either that or a reasonably still clean gym sock lying on the floor...

[jdaw1]

Hello and welcome. We like port drinkers, and encourage them to join us online and at tastings. We’re friendly and have yet to turn away any genuine enthusiast or student (except ‟turn away” in the sense that a bottle gives only fourteen tastings, so there are never more than fourteen ‘seats’).

But Derek’s ‟we pride ourselves on drinking in moderation” is false. Tastings typically have a fixed number of people who have agreed to attend, say eight, and a theme, say 1980 vintage port. The theme is usually done as completely as possible: every house of 1980 that we can obtain at reasonable expense. If drink be your servant, you will be very well served. But if drink be your master, or even might be your master, you will be badly beaten.

Which I why I fear that our company could be bad for you. But you must judge, and ought to judge wisely.

[jazzylee77]

I'm probably better off gleaning info from others tastings and limiting myself to a few ounces in the evening. We'll see.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Lee,

Welcome to the Port Forum, a great place to read about and learn about port. Through the bottles that folks write up notes on and your own experience, you can read what people think of a particular port and use that to guide yourself to your next bottle to try.

I've never tried the Dow's Crusted so it was interesting to read what you thought about it. I might give that a go sometime as I do like Crusted Ports.

And, if you had the time to look back at some of the past messages, you will see that quite a few forum members gave up alcoholic drinks for January this year and may do the same again next year to (a) lose a bit of weight and (b) detox and flush out any concerns of dependancy. If nothing else then you are at least with folks who understand the issue.

But most of all, enjoy posting here and feel free to ask any questions that you might have.

Alex

[jazzylee77]

And, if you had the time to look back at some of the past messages, you will see that quite a few forum members gave up alcoholic drinks for January this year and may do the same again next year to (a) lose a bit of weight and (b) detox and flush out any concerns of dependancy. If nothing else then you are at least with folks who understand the issue.

That sounds positive. I have a pattern of juice fasting a couple times a year. That should provide a good time to check up on myself as well. Though I hesitate to even say it, since I know there so many that may think "hmmm I can probably handle drinking again" and so many just can't. I feel I have the ability to "reprogram" myself. That is how I quit drinking without group help.

[g-man]

Welcome to the forums Lee.

I personally haven't drunk any port in the month of december yet and from the looks of it, it won't be til the end of the month!

Jdaw1 forgets to mention that alot of our tastings start off with a very serious round of tasting first, then afterwards many forum members have been humbled by trying to keep up with Jdaw1.

[SushiNorth]

We were pouring that crusted Port straight from the bottle at the wine bar. I have since filtered it, though there really wasn't much sediment in it. I filtered through a coffee filter (had to poke a few little fork holes in it so it wouldn't take an eternity) It was either that or a reasonably still clean gym sock lying on the floor...

Welcome

So the point of filtering is that many ports come with sediment. Giant huge pieces of detritus either included upon bottling or emergent after years of precipitation in the bottle. Sediment can also be smaller grained, but certainly a coffee filter can get it out. Here's the trick: Unless the bottle is Vintage Port, Colheita, or says it comes unfiltered (as a few LBVs do), you don't need to filter it. Enough filtration was done before bottling to get the mouthfeel as the bottler intended.
Of course, if you poke holes in the filter, then its really not doing its job and you might as well just drink the port

[JohninNYC]

Lee-
Welcome to The Port Forum!