Continuing with wine "demolition" dinners theme; Rob and Wendy hosted a port demolition dinner in July 2010.
A "Three Decades of Taylor" 1975, 1985 and 1994 Taylor Fladgate ports.
The evening started with a white port and a savory cake made by Karen. The white port was a Ramos Pinto. Nutty, good flavors, good acid level, high alcohol level, good raisin-like flavors.
The savory cake was very good. The texture led us to believe that cormeal was an ingredient, but it wasn't...very nice combination with the white port.
Meanwhile, Rob decanted the ports. Of course the cork in the 1975 was very brittle and more or less completely fell apart. Pulling old corks is very tricky to do....Old corks get dry and crumble very easily.
Next we tasted the ports:
- 1975: Light red in color, still concentrated woody nose going toward nutty, some sandalwood character with spice. A nice old port.
- 1985: Brick Red. Not as concentrated as the 75 nose. A little brunt sugar in the nose. Still very good.
- 1994: Very purple in color, very concentrated grape-y nose, slight veggie character. Nice port, needs time to age.
The first course up was the Cauliflower soup. The recipe and my notes for this recipe are in another post, here the link...
The soup seemed to go well with all the ports. The 94 port seemed to get a little hotter in the finish with the soup. The 75 was just great with the soup, the 85 opened up with some nice nutty character in the nose and tasted very nice.
The sauté calamari with sweet pepper sauce was the next course. The calamari was very tender and the sauce was a nice sweet and spicy addition. I think that the white port went the best with this dish.
The main course was grilled pork with a mole sauce with a side of potatoes, apples, cabbage, and bacon with corm muffins. All the ports went with this dish and made me think that ports go with everything!
After drinking the ports with the above courses, we needed another wine to go with the cheese course and dessert. Rob opened a 77 Fonseca.
The Fonseca tasted different than the other ports with a greenish, minty flavor. Very nice, but just different.and we finished the dinner with a selection of cheeses and a nice baked apricot that had great concrentrated flavors. Of course, the ports were great with the cheeses.
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ReplyDeleteRobs comments posted by George
ReplyDeleteRamos Punto White Port
Golden. Pine note, smallish nose. Quite sweet, alcoholic. Dried fig/dried fruit, especially finish. Nice, well-balanced, if not exactly aperitif wine.
Savory cake with pancetta and other stuff, dried white and black figs
Excellent cake. Coarse textured and crumbly, it seemed to have cornmeal in it, but no, flour only.
White port and this cake go together beautifully.
Three decades of Taylor
’75 Taylor: lovely, ready, my favorite. Medium ruby, a touch tawny. Refined nose, med typical port fruit; aromatic/perfume note, vaguely cilantro or marjoram. A little hot; long cherry-like finish.
’85 Taylor: acting older than its years, ready, Fairly deep red, brownish cast, dull. Big nose, with some prunes. Med-full body, smooth, a little hot, cherries and prunes.
’94 Taylor: not ready yet. Opaque purplish black. Fruit and molasses nose. Still hot, a little tannin, but smooth texture underneath. Prune note to finish.
and later…
’77 Fonseca: surprisingly young and big! Some wood-like notes, maybe from whatever that woody-smelling grape is that they use in port. Interesting mint notes in nose.
Cauliflower soup and chili bread
Dang good soup, especially with the chili bread. All ports worked well, I liked the ’94 best, because it was big.
Squid
The squid had good flavor and the tenderest texture that I can remember for large squid. It only works with white port, and then, only sort of. A bridge too far, but that’s part of the point.
Pork with peanut mole, apple/potato/cabbage side dish, and corn muffins
The peanut mole, which hales from, um, somewhere in Mexico that Wendy will remember, tasted excellent with the pork. The ’75 and ’85 were winners with this dish. The ’94 was good, but a bit too young and exhuberant. I’d like to see a rematch, this time with a chocolate mole.
The apple/potato/cabbage dish worked best with the white port; I thought it so-so with the red ports. The muffins went well with all the ports, slightly sweet and corn-y.
Cheeses and baked apricots
For me, only the blue cheese really worked with the ports. Its acidity made all the difference. I expected cheddar to work as well, but it didn’t have the punch to stand up to the ports, and they all ran over it – nice mouth feel, though. Finally, I don’t like goat cheese with port – it doesn’t have acidity for contrast, and the goaty-ness clashes with the port fruit.
The apricots went well, but not great, with port. I can see them with Sauternes – apricot on apricot.
Thanks,
Rob