Prager (Napa "port style" wine)

Anything but Port, this includes all wines other than fortified wines (which have their own section) even if they call themselves Port. There is a search facility for this part of the forum.
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Anything but Port, this includes all non-Port fortified wines even if they call themselves Port. There is a search facility for this part of the forum.
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rich_n
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
Posts: 550
Joined: 10:59 Thu 23 May 2019

Prager (Napa "port style" wine)

Post by rich_n »

I recently visited a friend who has moved out from San Francisco to Napa and obviously undertook some wine tastings while there. One of the highlights for me was the Prager tasting rooms, where they produce what they call port (stylistically to me it was a very good version of a port style wine). While there, I tried (among other less memorable options):

2015 (NV) Royal Escort Port: This was really excellent, very fruit forward with a lot of plum and darker stone fruits. My kind of port! Nice tannic structure too, may age well so of course I decided to buy a bottle to see how well it does.

10 YO White Tawny Port: A fascinating bottle. Caramel and vanilla bringing to mind butterscotch desserts (and strangely reminiscent of the popcorn jelly beans from my youth, but in a good way). Bought a bottle of this and enjoyed in my friend's back garden as an aperitif before heading out for dinner. Lovely stuff, very drinkable and unlike anything I've ever tried (although I have little experience in white ports generally).

Well worth a visit to anyone out in that part of the world, very friendly and knowledgeable hosts in a quaint old-school setting that's quite different to a lot of the more polished Napa vineyards and wineries.
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Re: Prager (Napa "port style" wine)

Post by Andy Velebil »

I haven't been in many many years, but glad to hear it's still a unique place. They do make one port out of traditional Port grapes that's pretty darn good. I can't recall the name, was it the Royal Escort you mentioned?

However, all their ports are crazy expensive compared to top end VP's.
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rich_n
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
Posts: 550
Joined: 10:59 Thu 23 May 2019

Re: Prager (Napa "port style" wine)

Post by rich_n »

The Royal Escort is the standard VP style port (and occasionally they apparently declare that vintage from time to time). It was excellent, and good enough that I splashed out on a bottle (a decision potentially helped by an afternoon of wine tasting!). Prices of wines in California vs Europe are generally much higher and you don't get the bargains you could in European vineyards by going direct - I was really surprised and my friend who lives there said it took him time to adjust his expectations!
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