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rewine
Posts:3
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| 08/03/2006 9:33 PM |
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Hundreds of blokes have a port barrel at home and who was told how to look after them. They came as a gift from mates or from a boss or a girlfriend before she realised that you were already drinking enough without any encouragement from her. Re wine can sell you good port to top up your barrel but if it is in bad shape already then we should put you straight.
1. Is the barrel winetight?. If it has been empty for a long time it may leak because the wood has dried out and shrunk. To fix this, half fill it with hot water and give it a good shake around to wash out all the dried up crud that will be in there and to wet the wood. Do this a few times each day until it stops leaking. Rinse it out and have a good sniff. If it smells ok try a litre of port in it for a week and tip it out and taste it. If it tastes good then you are back in business. If it tastes crook then we need to get serious. Go down to your local beer or wine brewing outlet and buy some sterilant and mix up a strong solution from the directions and soak this in your barrel for a week. Rinse it out with hot water a few times and try our litre sample again. If a week later the sample still tastes crook then I’m afraid it is bad news. Cut the barrel in half around the middle and plant some herbs in it. Buy a new one from us and start from a good beginning.
2. When you have a good sweet barrel, add about 8% of the volume with old quality material like our 10yo Muscat. Then add 2% of brandy, and top the rest up with a young port like our Presidents Port. You can be as cheap or as expensive as you like here but the better the input the better the output. Angoves make about 3 different levels of brandy all of which are fantastic value. The best of them are pot stilled like Cognac and you would be hard pressed to pick them from an $80 bottle of the real French stuff.
3. The best method of using your port is to only attack it once a year. Choose a suitable anniversary like your birthday or your anniversary. When you do, bottle off about 30% at the most. Then top it up again with young Presidents Port, Muscat and brandy in the same proportions as above. You will be amazed how good it will be in a very short time. After the first few years you will not need to add the bit of good Muscat, but always add the bit of brandy when topping up with young port.. If you find that the port is too ‘sticky’ it can be thinned out with a small addition of brandy, say 1% of the total volume. |
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