With Christmas just around the corner, Alasdair Nicol recommends a sweeter libation to toast the holiday season

F unny thing, port. It’s the drink that’s consigned to the end of the meal and comes loaded with an antiquated, class-riddled reputation of braying blue-blooded twits parroting whatever mob-prodding rubbish the right-wing newspapers are peddling that day. Indeed, just the thought of a ‘port conversation’ (complete with vintage cheddar cheese, cigars and severe gout) is enough to make anybody shudder.

And yet nothing pronounces the holiday season more eloquently than a great bottle of vintage port. Personally, Christmas just doesn’t feel the same without a bottle by the side. But with so many brands to choose from, do we really know what to go for? And how does this delicious tipple differ from any other wine on the market?

As the name suggests, real port can only come from Portugal and, more specifically, the Douro Valley appellation, much in the same way that champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France. The wine’s name, however, is usually associated with Great Britain as many of the oldest and most prestigious quintas (think châteaux in Bordeaux or domaines in Burgundy) were founded by the British.

Essentially, port is a fortified red wine made by adding small amounts of grape spirit with a very high alcohol level added during the wine making process. It makes an excellent match to cheese or chocolate, but can also be enjoyed in the same way you would a Sauternes after dinner.

On top of regular port, you can also get tawny port (fortified wines from anywhere else in the world – namely Australia and South Africa – are usually just labelled as tawny). The wine is aged in wooded barrels and gradually exposed to oxidation and evaporation, which in turn causes a reduction in volume and concentration in sugars. Tawny wines are sweet or medium dry and are often consumed as a dessert wine due to their high natural sugar content and viscosity. Officially, tawny ports are non-vintage, but most bottles available on the market are a blend of several vintages with an average age between 10 and 40 years.

If you’re a newcomer to port, here are some handy tips to help you better enjoy this sweet libation. Firstly, you should always treat vintage port with the same respect as you would a bottle of fine red wine. When it comes to serving ‘porto’ (as the Portuguese call it), use a standard white wine glass with about an 80ml measure and serve it slightly chilled at around 12 degrees. Most importantly, once you’ve opened a bottle of vintage port, consume it within a day or two as, like red wine, it will oxidise and ‘go off’ if left any longer.

So all you need to do now is go out and drink it. The best you can find in Hong Kong (and by ‘best’ I mean fantastically good) is Seppeltsfield’s aged Tawny from Australia. Grand Vintage in Central sells Seppeltsfield’s vintage tawnies from 1879 all the way up to vintages from the late 1980s. It’s an impressive collection by any standards. On a recent visit to the store, Grand Vintage’s proprietors Tony Ho and Jenny Hung let me try tawnies from 1879, 1911 and 1928. Delicious is an understatement. They’re sweet, viscous and moreish without a hint of being cloying.

For those who want something a little more quaffable, there’s Dow’s 1994 (available from Links Concept), Graham’s 1992 (available from Fine Vintage) and Taylor’s 1985 (available from Jebsen Fine Wines). You’ll find all these ports to be most agreeable.

But in the 21st century, why should we still care about fortified wine? Well, because port is slightly sweeter than any normal red; it is a great tool for training your palate to pick up the subtle nuances in a grape wine; and, really, once you get into it, port is a seriously seductive beverage.

So, as this is Christmas, don’t just go for the standard plonk. Get out and find yourself a decent vintage port. It will certainly impress your friends at the end of the meal and I can already envisage the port bottle open, the cigars lit and a fully satisfied crowd relaxing in your
living room after the traditional Christmas meal. Just be careful
your mad old uncle Percy doesn’t over-indulge and start braying on about why ‘hanging’s not good enough for them!’ Otherwise – eat, drink and be merry!

Grand Vintage 1 Li Yuen St East, Central, 2521 2628; www.grand-vintage.com.
Links Concept 18/F, The Sun’s Group Ctr, 200 Gloucester Rd, Wan Chai, 2802 2818; www.linksconcept.com.hk.
Fine Vintage Unit 1208, Hong Man Industrial Ctr, 2 Hong Man St, Chai Wan, 2896 6108.
Jebsen Fine Wines 28/F, Caroline Ctr, 28 Yun Ping Road, Causeway Bay, 2926 2240; www.jebsenfinewines.com.