Graham's 10 Year Old Tawny Port, 75 cl (Packaging May Vary)

Product Information

Whereas most port should be drunk within a week or so of opening, an open bottle of tawny will last for months, if not years. It's a blend of wines with an average age of 10 years, giving it the ripe strawberry fruit of young wines but with the nuttiness of older ones.

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This delicious example from Graham’s is at the lighter end of the style, with soft tannins and a delicious cherry and almond flavour. Aged for a bit longer, they offer more sophistication and complexity but have the same deep red colouring and fruity flavours. Ruby Port – Aged for 2-3 years in barrels or vats, these are full-bodied ports that are meant to be drunk young. You can get all kinds, including white port (made from white grapes), each with different characteristics.Traditionally made with foot-trodden grapes in Noval’s old granite lagares in the summer of 2018, this port is dense, rich and velvety, with leather, liquorish and damsons. If you open it up among a group of friends, we would be impressed if the bottle lasts until the end of the night – this stuff is seriously moreish. Delivering cherry and blackcurrant jam on the nose, with undercurrents of molasses and woodsmoke, this is a rich and aromatic wine with a soft, lingering finish. Then there are tawny ports which are barrel-aged for longer with oxygen contact, like with sherry, until they lose their colour and take on a nutty quality. It’s rarely seen these days, but when you try this delicious example that's bottled in 2013, you'll wonder why.

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In fact, the best port – which is produced exclusively in the Douro Valley of Portugal – is the drink of the moment and it’s increasingly being enjoyed as a long drink, as well as the more traditional digestif. The wines then spend some time in wood, with the lowest quality sold ready to drink as ruby port and the best, only made in special years, bottled as vintage port. This rare style of port hasn’t been filtrated, hence the wine forming a “crust” in the bottle, and is only made by a limited number of producers. The cheapest style of port but made one of the Douro Valley’s smaller producers, Quinta de la Rosa, there’s not a shortage of class. Single Quinta Vintage Port – These ports are produced from a port house’s best vineyards in a great year, but may not be quite good enough for a declared Vintage Port.

It’s intensely aromatic with floral, honey and citrus fruits, and makes a cracking alternative to gin when mixed with tonic. It has nuts, dried fruits and orange peel coming through in the aroma, then follows through in the rich, slightly sweet and very smooth taste.

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Crusted Port – A blend of outstanding young ports from two or three harvests, these are left to mature in the bottle, forming a “crust” (natural sediment) as they age. A late bottled vintage is from a single year but aged for up to six years in wood, so once bottled it's ready to drink. For regular wine deliveries direct to your door, sign up to the BBC Good Food Wine Club for discounts on exclusively curated wine cases chosen by experts and the BBC Good Food team.Tawny Port – After being aged in oak barrels, tawny ports are further aged in bottles for periods such as ten, 20, 40 years, etc. Made by one of Porto's great families, the Symingtons, this is another wine that offers great value. The quality of port is at an all-time high, from the cheapest rubies on supermarket shelves, to vintage ports. Then, while there is still lots of unfermented sugar, brandy is added which kills the yeasts and stops fermentation.

You’ll know the name of Graham’s – they’ve been making port since 1820 – but you might not know much about white port, which is made exclusively from white grapes and is actually nearer a golden colour. Port is made by taking very ripe grapes grown in the Douro Valley and crushing them to extract as much colour and flavour as possible (the top wines are still trodden by foot). Vintage Port – Made from the best grapes of a single year, the “vintage” refers to an outstanding harvest. In years that aren't quite good enough for vintage port, producers will release a wine under a second label. With often only half the alcohol content of vodka or gin, you’ll find a growing number of bar lists featuring port in all sorts of ways you had probably never imagined.Made from a blend of two or three vintages, the idea is you get the best of all the harvests, and this one is both creamy and smooth and pairs well with puddings, especially berries and chocolate, or with strong cheeses. In Britain, we tend to associate port with stilton but it is a surprisingly versatile wine: white port is great with tonic; ruby and cheaper tawnies can be used in cocktails in place of vermouth; a chilled tawny makes a nice aperitif; and young vintages are a perfect fit with dark chocolate.