During the sun-drenched days of summer, fans root for their favorite golfers and baseball teams, and when winter rolls around, they pile into football stadiums and basketball arenas, ready to cheer the action. Just as sports have their seasons, so, too, do many wines.
Searing hot days call for crisp white wines that cool the brow and quench the thirst, while on sultry afternoons, whether you’re puttering in the yard or relaxing on the porch, a few sips of chilled rosé always make the weather feel a little fresher.
Over hibernal soups and thick beef stews designed to warm a body from the inside out, nothing suits the season better than a robust red boasting dark fruit and rich flavors. After dinner, stoke a welcome blaze in the fireplace, and for dessert, reach for a fortified port-style wine—red, pink, or tawny—to help ward off the shivers.
Representing a vinicultural tradition at least 300 years old, port-style wines are the product of a winemaking technique forged in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal. They take their name from the city of Oporto, located at the mouth of the 560-mile long Rio Douro, and as of March 2006 it is illegal to call a wine “port” unless it is made in Portugal.
By 1600, the Portuguese were exporting more than one million cases of mostly red table wine each year, moving it down Rio Douro for shipment to customers abroad. Vintners added brandy to stabilize the wine for travel and to improve its shelf life, inadvertently launching a new style of wine, despite its rather unpleasant astringency.
As the story goes, sometime near the end of the 1600s, an abbot making wine at a Portuguese monastery added brandy mid-way through the fermentation, instead of to the finished product. This served to halt the action of the yeast before it had metabolized all the sugar, and resulted in a sweet, fruity wine with a smooth, but lively kick that became the darling of wine lovers, especially those in Britain.
One of Santa Barbara County’s earliest vintners to embrace the noble tradition of port-style wines was Mike Brown, now owner/winemaker at Kalyra Winery. Many locals still remember the port-style wines he made in the 1980s at the old Santa Ynez Valley Winery (renamed Kalyra Winery in 2002), including his luscious, chocolaty Cabernet Sauvignon Port, as well as his groundbreaking Gewurztraminer Port, a light delight with tons of character.
Kalyra Winery continues to offer a variety of these fortified wines, some even made with the same grape varietals that brought fame to the Douro Valley. Because Brown launched his label before 2006, he can still call his fortified wines “port.”
The Kalyra Winery 20-year old Muscat Tawny Port was crafted using the age-old solera method over a period of 19 years. Loaded with mellow, nutty flavors, it complements fresh or dried fruit, as well as pungent Stilton cheese.
On the red side of the spectrum, the Kalyra Vintage Port is made from Syrah and aged in neutral oak barrels for three years. Bearing notes of fig, raisin, and butterscotch, this lovely wine makes a dynamite pairing with fresh fruit, cheeses, and deep, dark chocolate.
From Foxen Winery comes 2006 Mission Accomplished, a fortified port-style wine made with 50-year old Mission grapes from Rancho Tepusquet Vineyard. Winemaker Bill Wathen stopped fermentation of the pinkish juice by adding 170-proof grape brandy, leaving behind a pleasantly sweet residual sugar of 8.5 percent, an alcohol content of 18 percent, and a raft of tempting raspberry flavors.
Wathen recommends matching this delicate dessert wine with fresh fruit or a good quality milk chocolate. He even suggests pouring it over crushed ice as an unusual aperitif during summery weather.
East Valley Vineyard, in the Santa Ynez Valley, weighs in with its 2004 Port Syrah, which was basket pressed, fortified with neutral spirits, and aged in barrel for two years. Since brandy increases a wine’s shelf life, this offering should remain drinkable for the next 20 years, its cherry, white chocolate, plum, and dark fruit nuances wholly intact.
Over at Sunstone Winery, winemaker Dan Gehrs took organically farmed, estate grown Syrah and created the 2005 Doce da Alma (Portuguese for “sweet of the soul”). This dessert wine presents wonderful flavors of black fruit, plum, and blueberry, as well as a palate-pleasing array of sweet spices.
In days of old, St. Bernard dogs trained in rescue techniques carried brandy in little barrels hanging from their collars, proving that the spirit, indeed, produces some kind of heat. During this chilly, post-holiday season, tune in to a playoff game and warm yourself from the inside out with the magic of Santa Barbara County’s port-style wines. m
K. Reka Badger is the darling of wine lovers. Contact her at rekabadger@hotmail.com.
This article appears in Jan 8-15, 2009.