Port
The name Port is derived from the city of Oporto in Portugal. Port is a fortified wine, with grape spirits added to the wine to give it a higher alcohol content and richer, sweeter taste. Port is usually a blend of several red grapes -- Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, Touriga Francesa, and Touriga Nacional. Aged Ports are called "tawny" ports.
Port and Stilton are a classic pairing. Port is also nice with Cheddar.
Clocktower Port from Australia $12 at Grapevine. This was about the worst thing I have ever drunk! I wanted to try a Port, so a guy at Grapevine pointed me to this one because it was inexpensive and very popular. He said it was so good he could even drink it for breakfast. I usually don't like dessert wines, but thought I'd give it a try for the taste. I can't even describe what it tasted like, it was so bad. It was like cough syrup with a horrible aftertaste. My face puckered up so bad that my husband took pictures of me. We took the Port to a party later that night and nobody would drink it. It ended up going in the punch.
Clocktower Port with Stilton. I really wanted to try this pairing, but am just not into this Port. The wine was so bad that I couldn't even taste the cheese. It killed the cheese completely.
Fonseca 10 year tawny Port $28.99 at Grapevine. 20% alcohol. Portugal. I went into Grapevine and they had a Port sampling going on. Turns out I do like Port -- so long as it is expensive! I tasted the 10, 20, and 40 year Fonseca. I liked the 20 year best, but it was $48, so I got the 10 year. It is the color of Diet Coke. It smells like burning alcohol. Tastes like caramel and nuts. It is sweet and thick with a syrupy texture. Maybe a little wood. A little tangy. Maraschino cherries.
Fonseca 10 year Port with Stilton. This was ok, but it didn't blow me away. I felt like the Port overpowered the cheese a little bit, and the cheese tasted maybe a little too earthy for the Port.
Fonseca 10 year Port with Neal's Yard Colston-Bassett Stilton. This was much better. The cheese is really salty and earthy. It is pretty good, but not as great as I had expected. The cheese cuts out the sweetness of the wine. The nuts and wood of both the cheese and the wine blend together, but I still feel like there is something missing, like I lose parts of them both. It's ok. It is interesting, the chewy streaks of blue and soft, crumbly curd with the thick wine.
Fonseca 10 year Port with Gorgonzola Naturale. OK, but nothing I would ever try a second time. The gorgonzola is super spicy. It cuts the sweetness of the wine, which is good. The cheese may be a little too wild and spicy for this mellow wine. Patrick thinks the cheese makes the wine taste too sweet and brings out a cough syrup flavor in the wine.
Fonseca 10 year Port with Cave Aged Gruyère. This was really good. I liked this pairing much more than I did the Port/Stilton. I felt like the cheese still had the nutty, woody, and salty flavor going on, but without too much earthiness. It was just salty enough and the nut flavors blended together very nicely. The Gruyère I tried it with was a little more aromatic than I usually get -- it was a more pungent wheel of Cave Aged -- which I think worked best with the Port.
Penfold's Club Port Tawny from South Australia. I dicn'g know how much this cost because it was a gift. When I saw it in the store, it was only $9.49 a bottle! No matter what, I liked it. The person who gave it to me said the bottle he buys is usually $15 or so, but that he loves it. 18% alcohol. Tasted in 2004. It is from the Barossa Valley. On the bottle it says that it is rich and luscious. Dr. Penfold was a physician in Australia and had originally created this Port as medicine in 1844. Then people started to drink it. It is definitely a tawny port. That is exactly the color of it. It is brown with a little bit of pink. It smells like liquor, spices, syrup, and wood. It is very good. Smooth. It tastes heavy, but also light. It is almost citrusy at times. I taste wood, spice, sugar, caramel, nuts -- just like it smelled. This port seemed lighter than the Fonseca.
*Penfold's Club Port, Tawny, with HEB Extra Sharp New York style Cheddar. This was the only Cheddar I had on hand. I like this a lot together. I don't know that I would like a grassy British Cheddar with it, but I would like to try. This is good. The Cheddar has a nutty, woody quality, and its sharpness is good against the sugar. This is great. The cheese really cuts the sugar back.
Penfold's Club Port, Tawny, with El Rey Grand Saman Dark Chocolate from Venezuela, 70% cocoa. I know this isn't cheese, but it is excellent together. The chocolate was nice and bitter, and worked really well with the nutty, caramel flavor of the Port.
Penfold's Club Port, Tawny, with Smoked Scamorza from the Mozzarella Company in Dallas. I wanted to see if a woody, smoky cheese would work with this type of wine. This was ok, but not great. The cheese is way too mild for the wine, but the smoky flavor did last through the different levels of the wine. I wouldn't put these together at a party, though. The wine seems to taste sweeter with this cheese.