A Trio of Ports for Any Occasion

Editor's Note: these wines were provided to us for write up. Because I am not a Port fan, I passed them off to our secret taster to write them up.

People either love port wine or dislike it. I am in the love category so was very excited when given the opportunity to taste three different ports.

There was a Croft Pink Rosé Port, a Taylor Fladgate 20 Year Tawny Port and a Fonseca Bin 27.

Since I had never seen a rosé port I decided to try that one first. I was having dinner with a friend and took the bottle over to share with her. She is in the category of not usually liking port. This port came with a little booklet attached to the neck of the bottle which provided recipes to try with the rose port. We first tried the port by itself. It had a much lighter flavor than other ports and was very food friendly. This is a port that you could easily have several glasses of at one time. I tried one of the recipes that came in the booklet but decided that I preferred it plain. My friend really enjoyed this rosé port. If you like to have a port but feel it is more a cold weather wine this is a good one to try for those warmer weather times.

The second port I tried was the 20 Year Tawny Port. I decided to have this one with a cheese plate . This is a very smooth port that doesn’t leave a burning feeling on the back of your throat. The cheese enhanced the flavor but I can easily see enjoying this port by itself. This port is made to drink now.

The last port was the Fonseca Bin 27. I tried this one with some dark chocolate on one of the cold fall evenings we had recently. This is what I think of when you mention port. Rich, with a lingering finish. I enjoyed it by itself but having it with the dark chocolate made it my opinion so much better.

Each of these ports had individual characteristics that made them enjoyable in their own way. If you want to try port or retry port I would start with the rose or tawny and move your way up to a richer port.