I first sipped Blueberry Port at a science fiction convention - I-Con, held at SUNY's Stony Brook campus on Long Island, New York - in 2004. Duck Walk Vineyards, a little down the road on Montauk Highway in Southampton, was hosting a tasting, and I knew as soon as I saw that dark blue wine in a glass that I would really like it.I'm partial to anything blueberry - probably stems from the time my father and I went out picking wild blueberries near our bungalow in Monticello, New York, and we got lost and didn't get back home until well after dark. This was a pretty big deal and worry for my mother in age before cell phones, but the blueberries we ate for lunch and dinner out in the thicket were the best I've ever had. Sweet, and, now I know, teeming with anti-oxidants.
Port, on the other hand, is usually a slowly acquired taste. "Fortified" is the word used to denote its invigoration with brandy - which stops the fermentation, increases the alcohol content, and retains sugar. This kind of wine, which gets its name from the Portuguese city of Porto on the sea, can be a little overpowering when made from grapes. But not when it's made from blueberries.It's not cheap. Duck Walk charges $12.95 or more for 375ml, half the size of a bottle of wine. But the blueberries are handpicked in the wild in Maine... You can pour the port over ice cream, or just sip it on its own.
And, hey, wouldn't you like to be able to say to someone who comes over your place, next time, "Care for a glass of port?"
