Cocktails, food and harvest: Five unexpected ways to enjoy Port on Port Wine Day

If you didn’t know there’s such a thing as a Port Wine Day, you do now. It’s a handy date that serves as a reminder of this year's spectacular Vintage 2024 declaration, with many of the wines either just or about to be widely released. But it’s also a moment to celebrate the simpler pleasures of this historical wine.

Even though there’s an increasing appetite for premium Port, its fresher, more affordable iterations deliver such overlooked, everyday pleasures.

To celebrate this year’s Port Wine Day, we’re looking at different ways to enjoy it in a relaxed, joyous manner. The world is a tough place these days; why complicate it? Small indulgences go a long way.

First step: get those bottles out of the drink cabinet and stick them in the fridge. It doesn't matter whether they're red or white. One of the most common – and more harmful – mistakes of Port wine lovers is drinking them too warm...

Get creative with Port & Tonic

If you’re familiar with Port and/or have recently been to Portugal you’ll no doubt have been introduced to that delicious, uplifting aperitif that blends a fruity White Port with Tonic (P&T). It’s a masterclass in simplicity and immediate satisfaction.

My father used to make what is, for me, the perfect P&T (see below) and I’m partial to its straightforward, no-nonsense zesty twist.

But you should definitely get creative. Bartenders often garnish their P&Ts with mint leaves or a sprig of rosemary. I prefer to leave the Port’s aromatics undisturbed by herbs but each to their own.

There are obviously multiple, creative takes on P&T. I can recommend the Grapefizz, touted by Kopke following the release of its cocktail-perfect Kopke on Ice.

Mixing it up with Ruby and Tawny

Now, the art of mixing is not just the remit of White Port. The fruit intensity of a Ruby and the layered, smoky depth of a Tawny also lend themselves to delectable concoctions.

Here are three of my favourites (click left/right).

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Cockburn’s Port Bramble

35ml Cockburn’s Vat & Barrel Reserve Tawny 15ML Gin.
15ml fresh lemon juice.
10ml framboise.
10ml honey syrup.

Shake the gin, lemon juice, framboise and honey syrup with ice. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Float the tawny port over the top. Garnish with a raspberry and lemon wheel.

Taylor’s Old Fashioned

30ml Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny
25ml Whisky Bourbon or Aged Rum
1 bar spoon Marmalade
2cl Soda

Fill the glass with ice. Place the following ingredients in the shaker: Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny, whisky bourbon and a barspoon of marmalade. Shake. Double strain to the glass. Add the soda and stir gently.

Sandeman Don's Dram

30ml Sandeman Port Founder´s Reserve Ruby
30ml VS Cognac
30ml freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (white or pink grapefruit)
1 bar spoon of Pastis
Sea salt and black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker, add ice, shake for 5 seconds (do not over shake; drink should be shaken enough to incorporate the citrus but not to the point that it becomes watery or diluted). Double strain into cocktail or coupe glass. Garnish with pinch of sea salt and one grind/turn black pepper.

Move things around

Port should not be synonymous with desert and cheese platters. Cocktails, as mentioned above, are a great way to introduce Port as an aperitif, but there are other delicious ways to enjoy it before and during your meals.

There are, of course, the classical pairings – think Tawny with foie gras or aged White Port with cheese soufflé – but it’s worth thinking outside the box.

A few suggestions worth trying:

• Dry White Port with oysters
• Aged White Port with Mussels in creamy garlic sauce
• Vintage Port and seared or confit duck
• Tawny Port with lamb leg
• Tawny port with steak tartare

Elevate your cooking

Port is also a fantastic resource in the kitchen.

Few things are more naughtily delicious – and deceivingly, tangentially ‘healthy’ – than fresh berries and crunchy nectarines macerated in Tawny Port. Purists will be rolling their eyes but who cares.

Keep some raising in a jar with Port and use them for baking. Or reduce some Port for delicious salad dressings or meat sauces. Add some Port to your meat marinades. The options are endless – get creative.

Book yourself a harvest experience

There’s nothing quite like visiting the Douro with harvest underway and seeing, first hand, all the work and dedication needed to produce these incredible wines. Harvesting the fruit from the Douro’s steep banks – which stubbornly resist mechanisation – is truly backbreaking work. The fact that is still done today – the age of digital nomads, drones and AI – is testament to the perseverance and dedication of producers.

Many producers organise visits throughout the year and have special tours during harvest allowing visitors to have a full understanding of the process, from grape to barrel, by way of traditional granite lagares.

If you’re lucky, you might even have the opportunity to stomp some grapes. Having done it myself (more than once and more than 10 minutes) I’ll tell you that it’s both fun and eye-opening. The communal experience leaves your spirits lifted, your skin extremely exfoliated and your muscles aching.

And hey, you’ll get bragging rights on social media! So there’s a lot going for it.

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