How to Buy and Serve Vintage Port Wine
Port is a sweet variety of wine that originated in Portugal's Douro Valley. Vintage port is the highest quality port, so it is most often bought for, and served, on special occasions. Vintage port is known for its depth of flavor due to the high quality of the soil and climate where the grapes are grown, and the years the wine is aged. In addition, vintage port is made only from grapes harvested during the very best growing years. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Purchase vintage port from a trusted wine source. Get to know the buyer at your local liquor or wine store and ask him about their selection. If the store does not carry vintage port, consider ordering it from an auction house or online wine merchant. Auction houses include Bonham's and Christie's. Online wine merchants include Seckford Wines and Laithewaite's Wine.
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Stand up your bottle for at least two hours prior to decanting. Remove the cork with your corkscrew. Place the funnel into your decanter. Line the funnel with a filter such as cheesecloth. Pour the port into the decanter until the contents become sludgy. This process will remove any sediment from the port. You might have up to an inch of wine remaining in the bottle that you do not pour into the decanter.
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Store the decanter at a constant temperature before serving. This should be approximately 60 degrees to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature of a proper wine cellar. Try to serve the port within one hour of decanting.
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Serve vintage port in glasses made for swirling. Popular styles include tulip-shaped glasses, or snifters, so the bouquet of the port wine can be appreciated.
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Store the remaining wine in your refrigerator or wine cellar for no more than one to two days after it has been opened to keep the wine from going bad.
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