Tawny port

Porto tawny

What it is

The ten, twenty or forty years on a tawny label is the average age of the blend, not a vintage — the house holds parcels in small casks and marries young wine into old to keep the style constant. Decades of that slow oxidation drop the colour out and put walnut, caramel and dried apricot in its place.

In the kitchen

It is already oxidised, so an opened bottle holds a month or more in the fridge. Add it at the end of a veal or mushroom jus, off the heat — its aromatics are the finish, not the base.

Goes with

Foie gras Walnut Button mushroom Dried apricot Blue cheese Veal rump

Same species

Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale DOP Amontillado Armagnac Banyuls Brandy de Jerez Champagne vinegar

Also used with

Pickled walnut Blue Stilton Chicken liver

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