Come with me, dance, my dear,
Winter's so cold this year;
But you are so warm,
My wintertime love, to me."
-Wintertime Love, The Doors

For three days I had been holed up. Outside the wind howled off the water and the snow had turned dirty and icy.  I was laboring to complete a research project for noted university scholar.  My shoulders and neck ached from hunching over a keyboard and whaling away for seven hours or more per day.

This morn I saw the finish line.  Just another 8 hours and I can say goodbye to all this.  Come 2:00 I had clocked four or five hours.  Labor on and you can finish it, my industrious side told me.  Enough! Cried the ret of me.  And so I quit, within so little more to do.

Then came port.  Port, oh lovely port, who washed away my guilt for laboring further.

The word Port owes its birth to the word "Oporto," a town in Portugal that is or at least was known as "the chief port."  Port is a fortified wine- it's made from red grapes of varying sorts and it has alcohol added to it.  Originally, it is said, this was done in order to help preserve the wine.  How so?  Well, when you open wine it is good for a short time before it undergoes a chemical change and a plunge in taste due to the air.  Adding alcohol retards this.  Apparently, however, folks so enjoyed the extra punch that it became a style in itself.  Surprise, surprise.

Presidential Porto comes from Portugal, is 20% alcohol, and is aged 10 years "in wood."  What kind of wood?  It's hard to say, as the producers don't bother to specify and wood is not an overwhelming characteristic.   Instead, Presidential is sweet with hints of caramel and a spicy finish that smacks of cinnamon and a weird tequila-like taste.  Though not harsh, if large amounts are gulped, these peculiar charactericstics are evident and do make the face turn pink.  Still, though, it's quite drinkable.  (Rating **1/2)

Meanwhile, Australia, believe it or not, has produced a very good tawny port (tawny, meaning it is brownish in color- a sign, usually, of aging in wood).  Benjamin Port comes in at 17.5% alcohol and comes in a brown contained that looks like an overgrown and stretched inkwell.  I have purchased it a few times and have never paid more than $9 a bottle- a low price for port, and an insanely low price for tasty port.

Benjamin Port is a little redder than Presidential Porto, and for whatever reason is not spicy in the least.  It's oakey, very creamy, sweet, and it has hints of orange and perhaps banana.  My darling Zelduh, who is a bit of a port snob, has raved about this port and thought that it could probably sell for $20-$25. Benjamin Port should be bought by the case and shared liberally with friends.
(Rating ****)

None of mine, though, are present this day.  But that's o.k.- port alone is enjoyable.