Match the right port wine to your food choices.
Port wine is a sweet fortified red wine mainly produced in Portugal. Traditionally, it was served alongside cigars as part of an after-dinner ritual, but with a little knowledge of its subtleties it can easily be used as an accompaniment to a main meal or paired with other foods.
Desserts
Tawny port is a port wine that has been aged in wooden casks for an extended period of time and as such has developed a tawny hue. The best tawny ports are aged either 10, 20, 30 or 40 years and have hints of fruit, walnuts, coffee and caramel in their tastes. They are therefore ideal for any dessert that has a nutty or coffee flavor such as tiramisu, hummingbird cake or rum cakes.
Blue Cheese
Port and blue cheese are such a classic taste pairing that port and blue cheese sauce is a common condiment at steakhouses across the world. Traditionally a more aged port with a stronger flavor is paired with an equally pungent blue cheese as either a winter snack or the cheeseboard course of a meal. Classic European blue cheeses such as Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Fourme d'Abert are an ideal pairing with port.
Nuts
Another classic port pairing is with nuts. Usually chewier, tastier nuts such as walnuts, almonds or pistachios are best paired wih a younger, more delicate port. Some cooks have incorporated this into meals by adding port and pickled walnuts into pork dishes to add flavor and texture. Alternatively, adding mixed nuts to a port and cheese platter, or even passing out shelled walnuts at a port tasting party, can also bring out the subtleties in your port's taste.
Fresh Fruit
White port, often known as "porto branco," tends to be aged for less time than traditional port wine and has a slightly crispier taste with hints of fruit. Served chilled, it can be paired with light fresh fruit-based entrees such as a basic fruit salad with no dressing, Parma ham and melon or pears with blue cheese. Alternatively if served cold, it can be used as a dessert wine pairing for fruit salads or a fruit platter.
Tags: blue cheese, paired with, hints fruit, pairing with, port wine
