Editor’s Note: As November is port wine month at Catavino, we’ve asked a handful of bloggers specific questions about port wine depending on their field of expertise. Andrew Barrow, the voice behind the UK wine blog, Spittoon, editor of Wine Sediments and wine distributor for UK Wines Online, was brave enough to be our first guinea pig of the month asked to field 3 questions provided by Catavino: Considering that port owes its existence to England, what is the British current attitude towards port wine? Is it popular, or is it a wine geek treat? Is there some kind of British pride based on its history with port wine? Here is what he has to say:

It was the last of Ryan’s questions that got to me - “Is there some kind of British pride based on it’s history with Port wine?”

I had never even considered that us, in the UK, would have ‘pride’ in Port, despite its history. In fact, I doubt that many drinkers of port are even aware of the history or even that it originates from Portugal.

It is a drink for Christmas first and foremost. It does still have this traditional image. I am sure there are figures available somewhere that state that 90% (or whatever) port sales are made during December. How many of those are for gifts I wonder? A vast number. The majority of sales will be for basic tawny and ruby styles - Warres Warrior, Cockburns, and the like. Taylors LBV is a huge seller too, but only in the run up to Christmas. And I’m just like everyone else. Despite my love of the stuff - in all its array of styles - …