Top Four Reasons Why Port is Amazing
After a savory dinner, I love to wrap up the night with Unionville’s Vat 19 Port and a cheese plate. The salty cheese and sweet Port are bold enough to stand up to one another yet play with your taste buds. This pairing has tantalizing flavors that fall on opposite ends of the flavor spectrum. Pair our Port with a mix of aged blue cheeses such as Stilton or Gorgonzola and a soft goat cheese like Chevre. For added sweetness, roll your goat cheese in either dried cranberries or apricots. Round out your cheese plate with some roasted almonds, walnuts, chocolate-covered cherries, and dark chocolate. Yum.
Photo courtesy of Brick Farm Market
a great place to find the perfect cheese
If you have not already figured it out, I believe Port is a very special red wine, for a number of reasons. But I promise you, I will only name a few.
- Port is not just a red wine, it is a fortified red wine. Once the sugar falls to an optimal level, high-proof brandy is added to stop the fermentation process and preserve the natural sugars. This process creates a sweet, higher-alcohol product often consumed for (or with) dessert. Combined with tannin, the natural grape sugars create great aging ability.
- Port can be made with a variety of grapes. At Unionville, we use Chambourcin, which is a hybrid grape with murky roots. Chambourcin is one of the few varieties of grapes that has color throughout the berry, while most grapes have pigment only in the skin. The result is a lot of pigment available for extraction.
- There are several different styles of Port. There is a style of Port that will satisfy anyone’s taste buds. The two most popular styles are Tawny - which is aged longer in barrel imparting “nutty” notes - and Ruby - which ages in stainless steel and is characteristic of having a lighter body feel. At Unionville, we hold our vintage Ports in barrel - each year held separately. Just before blending, the barrels are unstacked and tasted. Vintages are then blended with this year’s Port to create the perfect Port. Cameron aims to embody the joy and character of a Tawny coupled with the youth of a Ruby. A late-bottled Vintage Port, yummy now but with the ability to age gracefully.
- Unionville has been making Port for over 14 years. Have you wondered why other, younger, local vineyards do not make Port? Unionville has been making Port for so long that we were grandfathered into the clause which states that, “Only fortified wine hailing from Douro Valley, Portugal is allowed to be called Port.”
Currently at Unionville, our Port is fermenting in stainless steel tanks. Once the sugars dropped to 12°brix, we added high-proof brandy. The grapeskins were left in the tank in order to extend contact between the wine and the skins. This pulls out intense flavor and color. The grapes and wine marry or macerate until about Christmas in the stainless steel tank in which it was fermented. We then press the wine very lightly and store the Port in a new tank for a month. The wine is then racked to neutral French oak barrels with virtually no oak character to impart to the wine. Once in barrel, the Port is not removed or topped until it is used in a blend for one of our Vat series Ports.
Coming Soon: Holiday desserts perfect to pair with both Vat 19 Port and Cool Foxy Lady.
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Desk or vineyard? This is the question I asked myself when making the leap of faith to leave my corporate life behind to pursue my passion for wine. After working in the medical communications space for 10 years, 2022 was the year of epiphany. It may sound old fashion, but I did have a major realization in the beginning of the new year that I was not meant to work behind a desk and chug along doing work that I was no longer passionate about.
My first notion of my interest of wine came during my frequent business trips to Boston about 4 years ago. For the first time I was immersing myself in the world of wine through client dinners, networking events and a lot of self-exploring through Beantown. During this time was my first encounter with sommeliers and wine experts. I was fascinated and intrigued by the expertise knowledge of wine, wine making and learning about the intricacies that goes into producing a bottle of wine. At this moment, I thought about how amazing it was to witness such passion for the craft of wine.
I enrolled in an online sommelier level one course at the Wine School of Philadelphia and began studying and reading everything I could about wine. This is where my 2nd major epiphany happened – I asked myself, the question that I stated in the beginning “desk or vineyard?”
This is the question that started the major stepping stone to my journey. I no longer wanted my wine passion to be in the background – I wanted to be 100% committed and both feet in. Unionville Vineyards was the first winery that popped into my head when I thought about making my “9:00- 5:00” switch. I attended a wedding at Unionville the year prior and loved the atmosphere, the wine and the people. The position that I applied to was half farm work half hospitality. I was instantly attracted to the idea of being out in the field to where it all begins in wine making. Thoughts of my “office” transforming into the beautiful vineyard was something I desired. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Unionville has multiple vineyard sites with the Coventry site located within Coventry Farm in Princeton being my favorite (love the views there!) Working at the different sites allows you to see how the different micro climates, soil and land impact the vines and fruit cluster growth. Also working in the field to me was the perfect learning opportunity to understand the craft of wine making soup to nuts. Being surrounded by vines that produced grapes such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Chardonnay was eye opening to me. I was so used to seeing the finished product of these grape varietals in their bottled form, but actually being able to perform farming techniques on the vines starts to create another level of perspective and appreciation for wine.
One of my favorite farming tasks to perform in the field on the vines is leaf pulling. Leaf pulling is when you remove leaves from around the fruit clusters. The rule of thumb is to remove leaves that are across and below from the fruit cluster. Removing the leaves creates oxygen flow, openness for pesticides to be sprayed and exposes the fruit to more sunlight. I enjoy seeing the satisfying result of a perfectly balanced vine with the right number of leaves removed. Working in the field creates a huge bond between you and your other field peers. You become a family unit and learn how to work together and communicate as a team. To me, this is a very important factor for having a successful vineyard. My experience with people at Unionville in general has been amazing. You have the opportunity to interact with people from all different backgrounds (teachers, college, corporate, etc.) which makes for some great conversations and comradery.
To anyone reading this, do not be afraid to follow your passion and take a chance on doing what you want to ensure your happiness. It was scary to make such a drastic shift from corporate to farm work, especially since the two are extremely opposite ends of the spectrum, but I have no regrets and I am happy with where my career and focus is going.
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