WBW #65: Snow Day Wine « My Wine Education

WBW #65: Snow Day Wine

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When I think of a snow day, I think about curling up in front of a roaring fire. Let’s face it, I’m not a winter girl. In fact, one of my friends recently called me a Sunshine Girl and he was right – I love to be warm. So when faced with this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday theme (which I chose), all I could think about was port.

Port is the type of wine that warms me up from the inside. Port was originally a Portugese style of fortified wine. Under EU Guidelines, only port from Portugal may be called Port or Portugal. However, everyone makes it and outside of the EU, you’ll often see “Port” used to denote a fortified wine. And no wonder port wine warms me up. It is fortified. Winemakers add a neutral grape spirit that stops the fermentation, leaves residual sugar in the wine, and ups that alcohol content.

So the other night, after braving some rather biting wind, I popped one of our Duraflame logs into the fireplace and we poured out a bottle of Lilly Pilly Estate 1995 Shiraz port.

This particular port is from Australia, not Portugal, but it honored the “Port” name well. At 18.5% AbV, it has a lower alcohol content than many of the ports we drink (which often top out around 20%). But it certainly went down fast and easy. Port, with the sugar and alcohol content, is a sipping wine, but the 375 ml bottle still disappeared quickly.

The Shiraz port had a lot of raisins and, surprisingly, rum on the nose. It’s an obviously heavy wine and it was dark, almost chewy. We caught flavors of raisins, plums, and figs, as well as the obligatory dark cherry.

It was the perfect wine on a bitterly cold evening – a great way to round out a snow day!

Stay tuned for the Wine Blogging Wednesday Round-up – the complete list of everyone who participated – to show up early next week.

Still want to participate? Get your link to me by Friday, Jan 22 and I’ll make sure you’re included in the WBW round-up!

Cheers!

Wine Girl Recommends

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It’s a snow day! (wine me, dine me)
Aqua now Ichiban (wine me, dine me)

Posted by Michelle at 11:11 am in WBW, WBW #65 | Permalink | Comments (8)

8 Responses to “WBW #65: Snow Day Wine”

writetechnology says:

January 20, 2010 at 12:51 pm

New on Wine-Girl.net: WBW #65: Snow Day Wine http://bit.ly/4S0fGj

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SREMI says:

January 20, 2010 at 11:30 pm

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This comment was originally posted on Twitter
thewinediary says:

January 21, 2010 at 3:02 am

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This comment was originally posted on Twitter
worldwidewine says:

January 21, 2010 at 3:02 am

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ethan_288 says:

January 21, 2010 at 3:02 am

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TwitTastings says:

January 21, 2010 at 3:02 am

WBW #65: Snow Day Wine | My Wine Education: When I think of a snow day, I think about curling up in front of a roa… http://bit.ly/7zOkpu

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
stephnoah says:

January 20, 2010 at 10:03 pm

WBW #65: Snow Day Wine | My Wine Education http://bit.ly/4Xs5mI

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
WBW Roundup: It’s Snowing Across the Internet | My Wine Education says:

January 25, 2010 at 8:02 am

[...] brought out at the prospect of a snow day. I have to admit, I expected more Ports. Kevin & I indulged in a port here in the Cincinnati area, where snow is no stranger. Gary and Allison, recently of Cincinnati but now [...]