The Drinking Life

Although my father and his male siblings were very good at alcohol consumption, I did not come to it until later in life.  I have always enjoyed a cold beer on a hot day, but spirits were never my thing.

None the less Mary and I now drink a reasonable amount of wine and perhaps have a taste for what is good and what is not.  Our winter trips to Portugal have enhanced our wine experience and improved my knowledge of Port; a drink my father drank to stimulate his appetite in his later years (or so he told me).  The difference between us is in the quality and varieties of Port we have drunk.  Being a real old Cannuck from the thirties dad was pretty much stuck on Bright's 74, a red port of local blend from who knows what source (actually it was a blend from Niagara).

I am only reminded of this lately because of two events.  On Monday I received an article from my good friend Bill H. (who now lives in Mooretown) about his 1957 trip from Ottawa to Arkona in a 1928 Willy's Overland Whippet and how it won him his wife.  Maybe I'll put it in the blog someday when I'm really feeling loose.  With the article he enclosed the following poem as Bill is a great advocate of making his own wine and vinegar.

The horse and mule live thirty years,

and nothing know of wines or beers;

The goat and sheep at twenty die,

And never taste of Scotch or Rye.

The cow drinks water by the ton, 

and at eighteen is mostly done;

The dog at fifteen cashes in,

Without the aid of rum or gin.

The cat in milk and water soaks,

And then in twelve short years it croaks,

The modest sober, bone-dry hen,

Lays eggs for nogs, then dies at ten.

But sinful, ginful rum-soaked men,

Survive for three score years and ten

  
The following day I placed my first order of vintage Port with the LCBO Vintages program.  I have begun to collect and cellar a few choice bottles of wine and it turns out that the 2011 Port harvest in Portugal has been declared a 'Vintage' and is said to be the best vintage declared in over twenty years.  Being the last of the big time spenders I sprang for two bottles (yes, only 2) at $130.00 each.  I bought a bottle of 1970 Fonseca vintage port in Lagos, Portugal last winter and it cost me $250.00  It' not a great investment, it's just about enjoying life.

For the uninitiated Port comes from grapes harvested in the Douro River valley in northern Portugal.  The subsequent wine is blended with another alcohol (usually brandy) and put in the barrel for only one to two years.  The product is then bottled. At the one to two year point the experts determine the quality and as it turns out 2011 is a vintage year.  The wine can now be cellared for decades and will only improve with age.

You may remember an older article in this blog from 2011 about our cruise up the Douro River into the heart of port wine country.  There is another article about the same time describing the opening of an 1860 bottle of port in an Algarve restaurant.