Flavor Profile
Color: Ranges from a burnt orange to a deep golden brown

Aromas: Rich autumn notes of caramel, vanilla, hazelnut and orange

Flavors: Coffee, toast, caramel, nuts, toffee and raisins

Body: Typically, medium in body with a soft, silky mouthfeel

Attributes: The term ‘Tawny’ has been applied to a dizzying amount of styles, and has unfortunately, made the term rather confusing.

Place of Birth: the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal

Comprised of: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cao, Tinta Barroca and Touriga Francesca are the most popular black-skinned grapes, among 80 other authorized grape varietals. With the exception of recently planted vineyards, most port growers have a mixture of 20 to 30 different grape varietals intermixed in the same vineyard plot.

Background
Tawny port wine is made from red grapes aged in wood, exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation, for longer than a ruby port wine. As a result, the wine loses its brilliant ruby color, becoming a dark amber or a tawny hue with a characteristic “nutty” flavor imparted by the wood. Finally, through a system of fractional blending with various older port wines to match the house style, the resulting tawny wine is elegant and soft, showing delicate wood notes and rich mellow fruit.

Every blogger loves comments, as infrequent as they may be at times. Without them, our job becomes relatively meaningless, as if we get up in the morning to write only for ourselves. Comments give us perspective, direction and a gauge to understand if and where our stories are hitting most profoundly within cyberspace.

But for niche bloggers like ourselves, who are writing for a foreign market, when we do have the great fortune of receiving a comment, it almost always comes from outside Spain and Portugal. To receive a comment from a wine aficionado here in Iberia is like hitting the jackpot. Granted, language is obviously the main barrier that detracts Spaniards and Portuguese from commenting on Catavino, but equally true is the idea of communicating via the Web simply because Latin culture thrives on personal interaction using eye contact, hand gestures and words to convey meaning. Consequently, you can imagine how elated we were when we received this comment on a post approximately a month ago:

It is very nice to see that the Portuguese wines have these kinds of critics. I have a little wine shop here in Portugal, where I try to have some “pearls” that are hard to find at the large surfaces [in the big wine shops] that we have in our country. Our objective is to give personalized treatment to our customers…

So what did I do when I got this comment? I hounded this poor man with questions! Vitor Mendes is one of four partners of a small Portuguese wine and tea shop located 40 km south of Oporto in Santa Maria da Feira. Over the past month, I’ve had the honor of corresponding with Vitor, learning of his passion for Portuguese wine, his upbringing …

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 - …

Does the title sound familiar? Over the past few months, Dr.Vino has been posting articles with the header: Impossible Food and Wine Pairings, asking readers to suggest wines that fit the niche food, or comfort food, that we typically don’t think pair with wine. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the suggestions and combinations people have come up with, and am always on the look out for something new that I might not have thought of before.

But today, I am going to ask you to do the reverse. I want to know your Wine and Food pairings for port wine! However, I want to add few qualifiers to make it more challenging and entertaining.

Remember, think outside the box!

Dessert with a dessert wine makes sense, but who says you have to do this? What have you drank port with that wasn’t sweet? Maybe you can’t marry port with savory foods, but then again, maybe you can. Tell us your thoughts and any experiences that you might have had.
Appetizers are usually served before the meal, but can you pair them with port? Discuss!
What is the perfect tune for an aged tawny? A virile vintage? A cocky crusted? Check out Bill’s example in the comments section of this post.
In my world, port wine is for wooing women. What is the perfect pairing of moods with port for a romantic evening?
Hell, let’s have fun, what should you wear? What is an LBV’s perfect ensemble?

As we have done with both Sherry and Portuguese table wine, our goal is to provide you with a solid understanding as to what Port wine is throughout the month of November. Over the next two weeks, we will be providing you port wine profiles of each style with the occasional tasting note thrown in for good measure. If you have a particular question, style or topic you would like us to research, as always, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Flavor Profile
Color: Known for it’s youthful and vibrant ruby red or garnet color, not so unlike its name.
Aromas: Explosion of red fruit, plum and blueberry
Flavors: Plum, cherry, cassis, strawberry and red apple
Body: Typically these wines are medium bodied with little tannic grip.
Attributes: Generally considered the simplest, most one-dimensional, of all Port wine
Place of Birth: the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal
Language: Portuguese, but it has been known to speak a few foreign dialects
Comprised of: Primarily, 5 black-skinned grape varietals: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cao, Tinta Barroca and Touriga Francesca
Aging: 2 to 3 years in neutral oak or stainless steel vats

BACKGROUND:

Ruby Ports are made from specifically chosen red grapes from the Douro River Valley. They have been fermented on their skins and aged in blends in either neutral oak or stainless steel for 2 to 3 years before bottled young.

When you hold up a glass of Ruby port to the light, you may be surprised to know that it could be comprised of over a thousand pipes (barrels) of port wine. Over a thousand! And although these pipes all originate from Douro, they are typically a blend of several different vineyards scattered across the valley. Therefore, the amount of people, time, energy, history and tradition intertwined into …