October | 2016 | Home Is Where The Haggis Is

port_wine_box

This post dates me because we opened a bottle recently that goes all the way back to 1977, my birth year. Yep. The jig is up. The big 4-0 is around the corner and you know what? I really don’t care. That’s probably the greatest thing about getting older. You just stop caring about the stupid stuff like worrying so much about what others think.

This bottle is pretty special. My mom bought it for me in Portugal when she was on an insurance trip with my dad back in 1985. She also bought one for my brother, but the shopkeeper informed her that my vintage had been a slightly better year. This bottle had been stored in their basement until my husband and I bought our house 10 years ago so it’s been aging in our basement ever since.

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I left the job of opening the bottle up to my husband. He has a knack for such things, but even so this bottle proved difficult to open. The seal was intact which was a very positive sign. The cork began to crumble from the corkscrew so he had to remove it in bits and pieces. Then he strained the wine through a sieve into a decanter. There was quite a lot of sediment and pieces of cork that the sieve caught. It reminded me of coffee grounds. Next, the wine needed time to open up. Think about being a liquid trapped in a bottle for almost 40 years. You’d need to stretch your legs and take in some air too! We gave it almost 2 hours to breathe.

When the time was up, I was relieved to smell that the wine had no trace of a vinegar scent which is a sure sign that the cork and seal did their job all of these years. Our two friends, who actually enjoy drinking port noted the scent of plums which was right on target. Those two loved the port, but the rest of us were not digging it. It was syrupy in texture and left you breathing fire like a dragon on the finish. If port is supposed to do that, then great for those of you who love it. I’ll stick to my dry reds and whites.

Overall, I wasn’t expecting to love or even like the wine. It was the story behind it and the fact that I was sharing the experience with the only two people I know that can appreciate a good port. The back of the bottle is also pretty cool and kind of spooky so it’s been added to my collection of Halloween decorations.

Cheers my dears!!

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Last Sunday evening we had meatloaf and squash roasting in the oven so the fam and I went for a brisk walk around the neighborhood and came home to the house smelling delicious. My husband wanted to open a bottle of red and who am I to turn down that idea? He chose the Hess Cabernet we picked up from Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago. I cannot rave enough about how perfectly this wine paired with dinner. We both looked at each other after the first sip and if we were cartoons, the tops of our heads would have exploded. It was that good!

The color was a deep crimson. The flavors reminded me of a much more expensive bottle of Napa wine with dark fruits, vanilla and oak spice with a lengthy finish. This wine will not disappoint if you are looking for a robust Cab in the cooler months ahead. The game changer that sets this apart from its more expensive Napa Cab cousins is the great value. It’s priced around $13.99 at Trader Joe’s. You can find it at Binny’s as well.

I’m planning to write a post about my top 5 favorite reds $20 and under for the holidays and this one is now nearing the top of the list. Stay tuned for that next month.

Rating: 🍷🍷🍷🍷 out of 4

Cheers my dears!

Home Is Where The Haggis Is

Monthly Archives: October 2016

Wine On Wednesday: Vintage Port

Posted at 8:30 am by Lisa Cavallari

Wine On Wednesday: Hess Cabernet

Posted at 8:00 am by Lisa Cavallari

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