The Wine Blokes

I’ve have plenty of wine friends who love a little tipple of port at the end of the night, and a similar number who can’t help themselves but play around with their own unique style of port. They generally fall into two categories:
1. Those who can’t bring themselves to disgard that half drunk bottle of port that has been sitting around in the cellar or on the shelf for years and instead of pouring the rank dregs down the drain, they blend it with similarily aged white and red wine, add a bit of brandy or scotch, maybe some liquer and sugar, and VIOLA, they’ve created the best port wine anywhere outside of Portugal.

2. Those winemakers or vinophiles who convince the local vineyard manager that they should leave a few kilos of Pedro Ximenez or Shiraz in one corner of the block, with the hope they’ll miss the botrytis and bird peck to sufficiently ripen the fruit to the sugar concentration desired to make a little port. “Just leave a little bit, the boss’ll never know, and it’s gonna make awesome port” they cry.

So how do you store your port if you’re not a winemaker. The best way I have found is the smaller oak barrels that you can get anywhere from 4.5L to 25 litres. You can either try and make port the correct way, or like my number 1 friends above, just keep adding yout left over bottles and a bit of liquer and spirit, and you’ll have a constant supply of after dinner port.

There are manufacturers in the US and UK of these barrels, but for the Aussies, you can find them at many winery supply stores, or you can order online from the Winemakers Choice. Volumes range from 4.5 litre to 25 litres and they’ll deliver direct to your door.

You can view and order the Port Storage Barrels by clicking here and visiting the Winemakers Choice.