How to pair vintage port with food

Date: June 13, 2011

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Vintage Port and Cheese

How to Pair Vintage Port With Food

User-Submitted Article

Vintage Port Wines are essentially sweet, fortified dessert wines from Portugal. Yet, it was the English who invented Port in the mid-1700s. In order for wine to survive the long journey from Portugal to England, Brandy was added to preserve the wine. These wines were called “Fortified Wines” and later became known as “Port,” named for the seaport city of Porto.

  As you may know, Vintage Port, like vintage wine, comes from a particular year and is considered finer than non-vintage. However, unlike wine, not every year is declared a vintage for port. The decision to declare a vintage is made by individual port houses. This is based on the quality of the grape crop in a particular year. For more information, see “How to Buy and Serve Vintage Port Wine,” (Resources).

Keep in mind, as a sweet, viscous wine with heavy sediment, Port is very limited in how well it can be paired with food. Because of that, Vintage Port has become a highly desirable way to end a dinner and is now served as a very satisfying dessert on its own.

Enjoyed for its luscious cherry and chocolate flavors, Vintage Port is commonly paired with English Stilton cheese and grapes, although it is outstanding with most other types of cheese.

Chocolate is delicious with Vintage Port, as are dried fruits and nuts, especially walnuts. Most fresh fruit such as, pears, apples, strawberries, etc., are quite enjoyable also.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_5792382_pair-vintage-port-food.html

Clark Wine Center was built in 2003 by Hong Kong-based Yats International Leisure Philippines to become the largest wine shop in Philippines supplying Asia’s wine lovers with fine vintage wines at attractive prices.  Today, this wine shop in Clark Philippines offers over 2000 selections of fine wines from all major wine regions in the world.  As a leading wine supplier in Philippines, Pampanga’s Clark Wine Center offers an incomparable breadth of vintages, wines from back vintages spanning over 50 years.  Clark Wine Center is located in Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone adjacent to Angeles City, just 25 minutes from Subic and 45 minutes from Manila.

Wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Loire, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Alsace, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, Chile and Argentina etc. are well represented in this Clark Wine Shop.

For more information, email Wine@Yats-International.com or visit http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com