Another New Year Port

Today was the usual big family New Year's Day meal. We all piled over to a friends house and spent the afternoon and evening there eating, drinking and laughing. We were fed to bursting. After food, our friend decided to open a bottle of Tawny Port. This was a bottle produced by one of my favourite Australian wineries - Tyrrell's. This was a bottle that our friend had aged for 8 years. She bought this directly from Tyrrells in the Hunter Valley while she was visiting us in 2002. It was a great wine and a fantastic example of how good Aussie Port can be. After a very loud and animated game of Taboo we then moved to an impromptu cocktail making session. The aim was to perfect the Bajan Smile (picture 2). The Bajan Smile is a cocktail we all had while on a big family holiday to Barbados a few years back. This cocktail was the official holiday drink (along the Tiger Malt!). We did a pretty good job of re-creating not only the drink but the memories that went with it. It was a great day filled with great people, huge belly laughs and numerous delights for the palate!

Tyrrell's Wines, Special Aged Tawny Port, Hunter Valley, Australia.

This was a delicious sweet honeyed Port. Full of candied apricots and fresh wild honey aromas. There was some sweet oak and hints of vanilla. There were some dark muscovado sugar themes going on in this Port. There was a super silky smooth palate. The palate also had hints of oranges and mandarin. There was a sweet spicy complexity with some cinnamon coming through. Beautifully warming, rich, complex and smooth. This was a really great Tawny Port. 4.7/5 (18% abv)