Port Wine in Australia

For those who didn't already know, I like port wine. I didn't discover I liked fortified wines until about a year or so before I left for Australia. In general, wine here can be confusing. Most wine in the States comes from single varieties of grapes, or else is just called something like 'red table wine.' Here, wine commonly gets bottled as blends. Some examples are cabernet-merlot (called cab-merlot here), shiraz-merlot, and so on. While most of the blends aren't bad, wine purists may be disappointed.

The port wine here is something else. The stuff called vintage port tastes more like the nice ports I enjoyed in the States. There is some other stuff here called tawny port. Originally, I thought maybe it's just a name, like some of the odd blended wine. But there's something different about the process to make tawny port versus vintage port, and in my opinion, the tawny port tastes strange and leaves a weird aftertaste in your mouth.

Recently, I was intrigued by two bottles of vintage port from 1979 in a local bottle shop. There was no price tag on either bottle, and I wondered if I should even bother asking. But ask I did, and the cashier had no idea and called the supplier, who told her to sell them for $20 each. At that price, I bought both bottles. How often would I get a chance to enjoy such aged wine?

Having finished one bottle, I'll say it wasn't bad, fairly smooth, and went very well with chocolate. I am glad I didn't pay a huge sum for it, though, because I think it was simply o.k. Nevertheless, I look forward to enjoying the second bottle.