Graham's 10 Year Old Tawny Port, 75 cl (Packaging May Vary)

Product Information

Tawny Port – After being aged in oak barrels, tawny ports are further aged in bottles for periods such as ten, 20, 40 years, etc. Then there are tawny ports which are barrel-aged for longer with oxygen contact, like with sherry, until they lose their colour and take on a nutty quality. It’s rarely seen these days, but when you try this delicious example that's bottled in 2013, you'll wonder why. Ruby Port – Aged for 2-3 years in barrels or vats, these are full-bodied ports that are meant to be drunk young.

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You can get all kinds, including white port (made from white grapes), each with different characteristics.This full-bodied yet smooth one – which has been wood-matured for an average of five years – has ripe peppery tannins and all manner of rich fruits including cassis, blueberry, plum and dark cherry, and the flavours last well beyond the finish. Crusted Port – A blend of outstanding young ports from two or three harvests, these are left to mature in the bottle, forming a “crust” (natural sediment) as they age. Aged for a bit longer, they offer more sophistication and complexity but have the same deep red colouring and fruity flavours. If you open it up among a group of friends, we would be impressed if the bottle lasts until the end of the night – this stuff is seriously moreish. Not too sweet, not too oaky, this is a fine example of a characterful port that’s a great crowd pleaser – and all the more so if you have eco-warriors at your dinner table.

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This delicious example from Graham’s is at the lighter end of the style, with soft tannins and a delicious cherry and almond flavour. Made from a blend of two or three vintages, the idea is you get the best of all the harvests, and this one is both creamy and smooth and pairs well with puddings, especially berries and chocolate, or with strong cheeses. In fact, the best port – which is produced exclusively in the Douro Valley of Portugal – is the drink of the moment and it’s increasingly being enjoyed as a long drink, as well as the more traditional digestif. Whereas most port should be drunk within a week or so of opening, an open bottle of tawny will last for months, if not years.It's a blend of wines with an average age of 10 years, giving it the ripe strawberry fruit of young wines but with the nuttiness of older ones. In Britain, we tend to associate port with stilton but it is a surprisingly versatile wine: white port is great with tonic; ruby and cheaper tawnies can be used in cocktails in place of vermouth; a chilled tawny makes a nice aperitif; and young vintages are a perfect fit with dark chocolate.

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Then, while there is still lots of unfermented sugar, brandy is added which kills the yeasts and stops fermentation. Crusted port is made from a blend of vintages, bottled with very little aging and kept, like a vintage port, to mature in bottle. It’s intensely aromatic with floral, honey and citrus fruits, and makes a cracking alternative to gin when mixed with tonic. Port is made by taking very ripe grapes grown in the Douro Valley and crushing them to extract as much colour and flavour as possible (the top wines are still trodden by foot).

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port – Aged for 4-6 years, these ports have lots of character but are lighter than traditional vintages.

You’ll know the name of Graham’s – they’ve been making port since 1820 – but you might not know much about white port, which is made exclusively from white grapes and is actually nearer a golden colour. A modern take on white port made with two grape varieties, Malvasia Fina and Moscatel Gallega which are cold-fermented and sold unaged to preserve primary fruit.

For regular wine deliveries direct to your door, sign up to the BBC Good Food Wine Club for discounts on exclusively curated wine cases chosen by experts and the BBC Good Food team. This rare style of port hasn’t been filtrated, hence the wine forming a “crust” in the bottle, and is only made by a limited number of producers. Delivering cherry and blackcurrant jam on the nose, with undercurrents of molasses and woodsmoke, this is a rich and aromatic wine with a soft, lingering finish.