5 Ports Worth Trying

The holiday season is prime dessert wine drinking time for several reasons. It's hard to drink a lot of dessert wine. They come after a huge meal and many other wines. We are full. Please not a wafer, no!

Add in the fact that many dessert wines are high in alcohol and pack in a ton of sugar and you can see why it can be so challenging to finish a bottle. That's where your friends and family come in! They'll finish a bottle of dessert wine in no time, right? Heck, they'll drink anything if they're like my friends and family. Not true, my family has been well-trained by yours truly.

That means we can't break out the swill for their disposal. Looks like it's going to have to be something decent that won't break the bank.

The signature house style ports from the big houses fit the bill perfectly. They are great values at usually less than $20 a bottle, are produced in a consistent house style, and are typically delicious! I've tried a few recently, along with a Late Bottle Vintage-style port from California just for fun, and they're all worth checking out as each offers a slightly different expression of what port should be.

Share one or more with your besties this holiday season, and here's a tip, don't save it for the end of the meal. Port makes for a great after dinner drink as well. Serve it with a few nuts (not your friends, the other kind) and some cheese and it'll drive the conviviality well into the night!

Click here for port recommendations.

—Gregory Del Piaz,  Snooth