N/V Portly Gentleman Australian Dessert Wine

Once in a great while I find a wine label that speaks to me....I present to you one such label. I'm not tasting this blind and am doing notes over the course of a few weeks. Retail on this is around $14.

Black cherry, black raspberry, and dark chocolate on the nose. After a few weeks of being open the nose is dominated by brandied cherries or maybe even cherry kijafa.

This wine needs air - pop it, pour a glass or two, and let it sit for a while (fridge or counter). Day one I called this flabby and dull. Now I'm rather sold. Big body, spice, oak, vanilla, spice, cinnamon, vanilla, plum, a bit of nuttiness.

A somewhat short finish - dark cherry at first, drifting away to vanilla.

Tasty and complex enough you'll want to drink it, cheap and tasty enough it would be great to poach some pears in. No complaints.

Score: 88* *not blind

2003 Evenus Zinfandel Port

I bought this a while back for about $10 (half bottle) at Trader Joe's. I've had some fake “Ports” before, but don't think I've ever had a Zinfandel Port before.

Chocolate and cherry on the nose.

Chocolate, cherry, and raspberry with plenty of dried fruit – raisin/prune, yet not much tannin. No depth or anything really interesting going on. After this has been open for a few days, some nuttiness is coming through, but it's really quite minor...honesty, it's not much further beyond a typical fruit bomb Zinfandel....lots of fruit, a touch of earthiness, and that's about it.

The finish fades fairly quickly...some alcohol lingers as well as some raisin, but nothing exciting.

Let's just call this a Late Harvest Zinfandel. $10 for a 375ml dessert wine isn't bad, but it's not great. There's some better “Port” coming out of Australia and for $10 you'd get a full bottle. If Ruby Port is too bold for you, maybe you'll take a shine to this, otherwise – skip it.

N/V Jonesy Old Tawny Port

Very dark...almost black coming out of the bottle.

On the palate: raisins, walnuts, some vanilla. No alcohol burn, no harshness, this is smooth yet complex. Nutty, long finish.

This is an impressive Port which I consider my "house dessert wine." It's rare that I don't have a bottle at hand. It's a shocking value: at around $10, the price is absurd. Buy this by the case, let it sit in the cellar, and drink at your leisure. It's got a screwcap so I would resist letting it sit for decades, but the complexity suggests it would last for quite a while.

A great wine at a groing grabbingly good deal. Buy it and thank me later.

Glunz 1999 Vintage Port (made with Touriga and Tinta Madeira)

Here we have another Glunz wine, a Vintage Port from 1999.

The Glunz Family Winery has a shop in Long Grove, Illinois. You can try their wine at the shop, buy a bottle of almost everything produce, or pick up an array of gifts. It’s a nice shop in a tourist destination, if you’re in the area it may be worth a visit. The 1999 was $25, they had a few other vintages for different prices...from $20-$40.

The cork on this one was a bit messed up...it clearly leaked a bit, the capsule was stuck to the bottle, and the cork was moist throughout. A bad sign, but the wine actually survived.

I opened this one a few days ago but held off writing about it since an open bottle of Port can morph for weeks after opening. This one is no exception. When I first opened the bottle I poured a glass right away and it was, shall we say, terrible. The smell and taste of tobacco just punched you in the face. Not a whole lot of fruit, not a lot of nuts, and seriously, tobacco just overwhelmed everything else.

I dumped out the glass, poured a bit more into a larger wine glass, swirled the hell out of it, poured that into my Port glass, and gave it a shot. It was better, but still not good. I’ve had Glunz’s 2000 Vintage Port and it certainly didn’t taste like this, so I decided to let it sit for a while.

After a few days, the bottle improved significantly. The tobacco flavors faded pretty far into the background and fruit, oak, spice, and caramel came forward, topped off with a fairly long nutty finish.

I honestly can’t tell you how this holds up to the high end Ports of the world. I’ve tried my hand at a few, but none really higher than the $40+ range. What I do know is that as a guy who’s not afraid to try the cheap ones ($10-15) and who generally goes for the mid $20s range, this is right on par. There’s a very nice balance of fruit and oak on the palate, with a nice long nutty finish. I would not hesitate picking up another bottle of this if I wanted something surefire for under $30.