#256 Peter picked a pair of ports

When you have a new bloke start working for you in your shop you need to adopt the mantra of New Labour and focus on "education, education, education".  I've recently had an Aussie join my jolly ranks of employees, and unlike many bright young hopefuls wanting to work for a cool shop and enjoy the staff discount on booze, this fella has worked in alcohol shops back home, so knows that it is about lugging boxes about and dealing with annoying customers.... before you enjoy the staff discount!

So as he has a lot of experience in Australian wine, I thought I'd start to mould his European palate with some port!  A basic introduction to ruby and tawny port, showing the influence that time in a barrel has on this fortified wine.  So I opened up two ports and discovered that these two, well, entry level(ish) wines were absolutely fantastic.

First up was Grahams The Tawny.  I've been subsequently informed that this is mostly 15 year old tawny port (I am open to being corrected on that one), and expecting a pretty young style, but was really impressed when I found that it showed hints of age!  There were lots of lovely raisin characters on the nose, old, slightly dried honey mixed with a bit of honey and a touch of soft leather - baseball mitt!  Palate is dry, some really nice leathery elements, sweet caramel coated nuts, a little dried apricots and some very nice heat on the finish. A tasty tawny port.  8/10

Next up was the original organic port, Fonseca Terra Prima.  I'd remembered liking this port when I last tried it, but that was such a long time ago the details have escaped me!  This had a lovely cassis and bramble on the nose, a little cracked coffee bean mixed with dark chocolate. The palate is soft, juicy dark berry fruit, a little heat up front and then some really tasty savoury elements creeping through.  Lots of coffee on the finish.... minty notes too with some more of the coffee bean flavour.  A long end, a touch of alcohol heat, but essentially a cracking cracking bottle of port.  8.5/10

So my newbie got his first insight into port and I got to revisit two wines I'd long since abandoned and found them to be real gems.  Great wines, the pair of them.