Gather 'Round the Table: Port & Chocolate

Voluptuous.

Intriguing.

Seductive.

Silky.

Sexy. 

That’s what you want from your wine, your dessert, and your sweetie on Valentine’s Day.  A great way to set that mood is with one of the best food-wine pairings ever: Port and Chocolate.

 Everyone knows and loves great chocolate, but some people are wary of Port.  Don’t be.

To bring the uninitiated up to speed, Port is a fortified wine from northwest Portugal. Perched atop a gorge carved into the cliffs by the Rio do Ouro, or river of gold, where the river meets the Atlantic, sits the Portuguese town of Oporto.  Its name, as may seem apparent, lent itself to the name of the country and the wine, and yes, it does mean “port.”  The wine is not made there, though; it is merely shipped from there.  It is grown and produced upriver in the Douro region of Portugal, the region’s name being a contraction of the river’s name.

Lately the folks who make the wine have been sticklers about calling it “Porto,” rather than Port, to differentiate it from its imitators around the world.  There are a few different kinds of port, but all share the trait of being “fortified wines.”  They are fortified with the addition of alcohol – neutral grape brandy to be specific – during fermentation.  This process arrests the fermentation by killing the yeast before it eats all the sugar.  That’s why Porto is sweet.  Its Spanish cousin Sherry is also fortified, but not until fermentation is complete.

The most common types of Porto are “Wood Ports,” of which there are two distinct styles.  Named for their colors they are: ruby, which is a fruity blend of non vintage wines; and tawny, which is a nuttier, more caramel flavored wine that is a blend of many vintages and is aged, sometimes for decades.  Both are delicious and are ready to be consumed the evening you take them home.

Vintage Porto, on the other hand, is a more complicated beast.  It is made in a similar manner, but only when the shippers feel that there has been an exceptional year will they declare a vintage.  1990, for example, was not so good.  In 1994, however, nearly every shipper declared a vintage and it was hailed as the best in decades, perhaps ever.  If you have the opportunity to pick up any 1994 (or ’97, by the way), spare no expense – buy it right away – then lock it up and wait for your mortgage-burning party, or your grandchild’s wedding. 

Vintage Porto will improve for up to 30 years, sometimes longer.

Do not confuse Vintage Porto with “Late Bottled Vintage,” or LBV.  The LBV’s have a similar style, but they are not as rich and complex, with the layers of fruit and fascination that a true Vintage has.  They too are ready to drink right of the shelf, like the wood ports.

There are a number of good ones to choose from, but my favorite names are Taylor Fladgate, W. & J Graham’s, Dow, and Cockburn.  That last one is pronounced, somewhat understandably, as “coburn” (if it was your name, how would you pronounce it?).

W. & J. Graham’s makes a particularly good one that is the perfect mid-level introduction to the world of Port.  It is called “Six Grapes,” from an old marking they used on their barrels to designate the better wines of each harvest.  Six grapes is not a Vintage Porto, but rather a blend of several vintages.  It is soft, supple and approachable, and it does amazing things when paired with chocolate.

Wanna Seduce someone this valentine’s Day?  Take the hour or so necessary to whip up this mousse, and it’s a virtual lock.

Port Shakespeare Chocolate Mousse

• 1 pound dark, semisweet chocolate, chopped (I use Scharffen Berger)

• 1/2 cup stout, (I use Rogue, but Guinness is fine) room temperature

• 1/4 cup port wine

• 6 each eggs, separated

• 1 pint heavy cream, chilled

• 1 t vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 t cream of tartar

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.  As it melts, whip the heavy cream and half the sugar to a stiff peak.  Separately from the cream, whip the egg whites, cream of tartar and the rest of the sugar to stiff peaks.  Then fold the whipped whites into the whipped cream.

In a mixer, beating thoroughly after each addition, add yolks to the chocolate mixture, 1 at a time, alternating with splashes of the port and stout until all are incorporated into the chocolate.

Slowly fold one fourth of the cream/white mixture into the chocolate.  Then fold the chocolate mixture back into the whites and cream, folding gently until no cream or lumps are visible.  Chill thoroughly, then serve. 

Next Time: Mussels  

Gather ‘Round the Table is a regular feature of Food.Gather.com.  Chef Kurt Michael Friese is the co-owner - with his wife Kim - of Devotay, a restaurant in Iowa City, serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Governors, and is Editor-in-Chief of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley.  He lives in rural Johnson County.