Washington winemakers serve up their just desserts
Sounds intriguing at the very least, but for a good percentage of Earth’s population enjoying a small glass of port is the way to cap a wonderful meal. And you don’t need to be British to appreciate port. In fact, a number of wineries throughout Washington State produce port-style wine for loyal fans that enjoy it with meals, by itself or accompanied with a nice cigar.
Port is a dessert style wine that packs plenty of residual sugar at relatively high alcohol (around 20% alcohol by volume). True port comes from northern Portugal’s Douro Valley where the type of grapes grown, and how they are cultivated, must adhere to strict guidelines. In large part, we have the wars between the French and English to thank because periodic squabbles led England to seek wine from a more reliable source. Enter Portugal. During the 16th century the Brits discovered that fortified wine (i.e., high in alcohol) traveled better than lower alcohol wines. England developed a taste for port, the population got hooked and the Portuguese port industry mushroomed.
New world winemakers include a cadre of vintners in Washington that use a similar process as developed in Portugal for making port but with very different types of grape varieties and styles. Here, grapes such as syrah or merlot go through their fermentation process, as do traditional wines. However, at some point during fermentation winemakers add neutral grape spirits (brandy), which stops further fermentation. This leaves a lot of residual sugar. (Evidently those little yeast cells just can’t stand too much alcohol and so they cease fermentation.) The result is a wine high in alcohol around 18 to 20% by volume, high in sugar content and rich in fruit flavors.
Reminiscent of champagne that technically can only be called Champagne if made in the Champagne region of France; true “port” is made only in Portugal. Because of European laws, we’re prohibited from calling it “port” in the U.S. and consequently you most often see the moniker “port-style” or “port-like” applied to the label. However, there are exceptions to this rule and one such exception is Yakima River Winery (Prosser, WA) where John and Louise Rauner have produced port beginning in the late 1970’s. However, at the time it was illegal to produce fortified wine in Washington for commercial purposes, which in 1982 prompted Rauner to venture to Olympia, and argue successfully to allow fortified wine production.
Producing both a Shiraz Port and a merlot-based port dubbed John’s Port; the Rauners continue to display the exceptional fruit of Yakima Valley. My sample of John’s Port portrayed concentrated fruit flavors, chocolate notes throughout and a velvet feel. Priced at around $20 for a standard 750 ml bottle, the sweetness of John’s Port would match gloriously with the saltiness of a Stilton blue cheese (as they intend to do this Christmas season with their last bottle of 1982 John’s Port).
For holiday parties we have the perfect antidote to any host’s “Just bring a bottle of wine,” reply to your “What should I bring?” question. Any of Spokane-based Knipprath Cellars’ ports, of which there are many. Knipprath Cellars’ Henning Knipprath began making ports in 1993. States Knipprath, “Making port seemed a foregone conclusion. I already had a special fondness for port and then I acquired several small Spanish oak barrels that I brought back from a Desert Storm deployment while serving as an Air Force pilot.” Today, Knipprath Cellars produces eight different ports of different styles, flavors and sizes. For a number of years, their best seller has been Au Chocolat! for one very good reason…it’s scrumptious and universally liked. But it seems to be meeting its match with the new release, Spanish Nudge; a syrah-based port aged with dark roast coffee beans and whole cinnamon sticks, which offers a taste experience reminiscent of a Spanish coffee. When tasting this wine, Flamenco dancing is optional.
About 15 miles to the north from Knipprath Cellars resides Townshend Cellars in rural Colbert, WA. Owner/winemaker Don Townshend began making port in 1998 when he experimented with various fruit ports and hit a home run with his Huckleberry Port. Now he’s released classic grape variety-based ports with 1999 and 2000 vintages reflecting the fact that he ages his ports for 10 years in the barrel. The long barrel aging produces a “tawny-like” port with notes of caramel and fig but still providing intense fruit forward dark berry flavors. (Are you salivating yet?) When asked if a bottle of Townshend Cellars port wine would make a perfect holiday gift, Don responds, “Absolutely, but I’m a bit biased.” Biased or not, these babies add flavor and spice to anyone’s winter soiree (or spring fling for that matter).
On the other side of the state on Bainbridge Island, Eleven Winery’s Matt Albee began making port in 2004 because, “I wanted to do something a little different and besides, I love it. It plays an important role with food as an accompaniment to dessert!” He makes both a white and a red port dessert wine. Albee’s port-style Syrah called Sweet Sarah is named for his wife, Sarah. Albee notes that many people mistakenly say “Sweet Syrah” especially after drinking a glass of his dessert wine. To which the winemaker wisely notes she (his wife), “is the sweetest Sarah of all.” Priced at $19 for a 375 ml bottle, Sweet Sarah goes with all things chocolate.
At Zillah, WA, Paradisos del Sol, winemaker/owner Paul Vandenberg admits to making ruby port-style wines so my wife (Barbara) has some to go with her dark chocolates. She is a member of the Truffle of the Month club at Intrigue Chocolates and trades wine for chocolates!With what has to be the best named-port style wine anywhere, Vandenberg makes a zinfandel-based port he calls Zort ($25). However, he also produces a cabernet-based port called Port Paradisos ($40) perfect with blackberry pie as well as a white port-style wine with an intriguing name of MRS Angelica ($25). The MRS part stands for Muscat, Riesling and Semillon and the word Angelica is an authentic American fortified wine style named after Los Angeles by Spanish missionary winemakers in the 18th century. Blessed with such a lovely name, MRS Angelica is equally exquisite and a marvelous accompaniment with anything cinnamon or desserts such as crème brulee, cheesecake and flan.
In the UK, the military (British Army, RAF and Royal Navy) use port as a wine to toast the Queen at formal dinners. It’s said that Australians use port (or “stickies”) not to toast one another, but to get toasted. In Washington State, port-style wine goes with the good things in life be it friends, a complementary dessert, or sipped by itself perhaps with a dog whose name just happens to be Port.
Steve Roberts is the founder/owner of WineTrails Northwest and author of wine tour guidebooks including the best-selling WineTrails of Washington and his newest book, WineTrails of Walla Walla. Learn more at www.winetrailsnw.com.
