Fortified wine in restaurants: Fresh o-port-unities

While it is vital for producers to present Port in a modern light, they must also take care to preserve its unique and quirky traditions, writes Gabriel Stone.

When was the last time you ordered Port in a restaurant? Anyone in the trade should be suitably switched on to the delights of this great drink but the fortified category as a whole can all too easily fall by the wayside for reasons of budget or sheer saturation.

That’s certainly not a problem restricted to the on-trade, but this sector has a particularly vital role to play in the Port houses’ ongoing mission to reinvigorate their enviable history for the modern era.

After all, a good restaurant thrives on the ability to present familiar ingredients in an original way without overstepping the mark into discomfort or gimmickry. With its depth of flavour and stylistic range sitting alongside an all too often rather superficial sense of familiarity, Port is a perfect weapon for the thoughtful sommelier – or even chef – looking to thrill their audience.

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Against this backdrop it’s pleasing to see so many signs of energetic effort on the quintas’ part to find a suitably contemporary role for their product in today’s restaurant scene, whether that’s devising fresh occasions and food matches or playing on the drink’s sense of occasion by presenting it in an eyecatching way.

“People in the UK still have a very strong perception of Port and a box where the category fits,” comments Tania Oliveira, communication manager for Sogevinus Fine Wines, home to the Kopke, Burmester, Calem and Barros brands. “Our aim is to make this box bigger,” she continues. “In fact, to break the box completely.”

Crucial to convincing people to look at Port in a different light is that first step of actually getting the product into people’s glasses. Charlotte Symington, senior brand manager at John E Fells, UK agent for her family’s extensive portfolio, describes the on-trade as a “great platform” for doing just that. However, she acknowledges the category’s reliance on an enthusiastic front of house team to support what should after all be a nice additional spend for their own business.

“It does get forgotten about at the end of a meal unless you’re offered it,” Symington notes.

While taking on-trade teams out to the Douro for the total immersion experience is an established and unbeatable way to create long-lasting ambassadors, that’s clearly not practical for every account.

Andrew Hawes, managing director of The Fladgate Partnership’s UK agent, Mentzendorff, stresses the need for a more active approach closer to home.

“In general the UK on-trade has yet to realise the full potential of Port but that should not be taken as a criticism,” he remarks. “It is up to the brands to lead the way with new initiatives and we have found many willing partners by taking this approach.”

For all the drive to present Port in a modern light, Hawes is careful to emphasise the enormous value of this drink’s rich heritage and traditions. “The on-trade remains a vehicle for presenting not only new contemporary ideas but also for re-presenting traditions that are in danger of being forgotten and which to millennials may be more relevant than for previous generations,” he observes. In practice that means dragging Port off the back pages of the wine list and onto the cocktail menu while at the same time keeping alive the art of port tongs, proper decanting and entertaining yarns about the Bishop of Norwich. In the right hands, these oldschool attributes can engage rather than alienate today’s bright young things who, after all, are busy lapping up other ‘retro’ artefacts, from Pashley bicycles to vinyl and real ale.

A MIXED MESSAGE

While its modern cocktail incarnation may seem like an anathema to more traditionally minded Port lovers, this isn’t about bastardising mature vintage styles but rather showing off several of the category’s other, less well known incarnations. At its most simple level sits the white Port and tonic, that classic and refreshing apéritif so familiar to Douro visitors and now making more regular appearances further afield.

Move up a level of complexity and many houses have started working closely with mixologists in order to find some original showcases for the unique flavour that Port brings as a cocktail ingredient. For the pioneering Croft Pink, Hawes recommends a long serve with cloudy apple juice, while Symington praises the combination of ruby Port, lemonade and crushed raspberries. “Most of the cocktails we suggest have just two or three components so they’re very easy for people to make,” she notes. That said, some venues have clearly been inspired to devise more ambitious creations. Take the Ceviche group of restaurants steadily expanding across London, which have given Port a distinctly Peruvian twist by combining 10-year old Graham’s tawny with apricot and ginger-infused pisco, banana syrup, banana shrub and bitters.

As well as making the leap from digestif to apéritif, Port producers are keen to show their product has a valuable role to play right through the meal itself. Cheese remains an obvious, classic moment but for a thoughtful restaurant there are many other options. Demonstrating that there’s plenty going on outside the ever buzzing London scene, The Fitzherbert Arms in Staffordshire relaunched earlier this year with a notably Port-centric offering.

Alongside no fewer than 30 different Ports of all styles and sizes on its drinks list, the pub offers dishes such as chicken liver and Port pâté. Meanwhile, Fells has put together a special set for the on-trade consisting of an oak board, piece of slate and decanter, encouraging sommeliers and chefs to work together and create complementary matches.

“It’s about providing our customers with a vehicle,” explains Symington. It’s not just the kitchen that can take inspiration from devices such as this. From a presentation perspective it can make a real impact on those at the table – not to mention their neighbouring diners – and it’s evidently an opportunity that Symington Family Estates is keen to embrace. Other neat theatrical moments available include a mini decanter containing a half bottle of Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos 2004 – a more affordable, manageable option than a full bottle – while the house’s various tawny expressions are all available in 4.5-litre Jeroboams for maximum back bar standout.

At the other end of the size spectrum, Symington found that, having introduced a 20cl format for off-trade customers such as Harvey Nichols, “a lot of sommeliers were asking for them too”.

ON-TRADE FOCUS

Meanwhile, the Sogevinus team is similarly hard at work encouraging its ontrade customers to take a fresh look at Port. “Our main goal is to make staff taste the product and be involved with it,” Oliveira explains. “We have run a number of bespoke projects with the on-trade from food and wine matching lunches to a dessert challenge matching one of our Ports with two desserts, and getting the staff to battle it out selling the highest number of dishes.” In short, she sums up: “Our emphasis is on involvement and being fun – we want to think differently, be different.”

What’s notable from all these initiatives is that Port houses are in no way changing or, God forbid, dumbing down their product. Instead the battle to recruit new consumers and reconnect with the lapsed is focused very much on finding contemporary, exciting ways to present this most traditional of drinks. If that effort also alerts people to the many delicious and excellent value options that exist alongside the vintage flagship then Port looks set to enjoy a future every bit as illustrious as its past.