Stone's Original Green Ginger

They had it in the port section of the LCBO. Sold as a flavoured wine, it's strong ginger with a sweet wine taste. Would definitely buy again. Reminds me of an odd mix of ice wine and Jamaican ginger beer. A good winter drink. Warms you up with booze and ginger.

I bought this on a whim, figuring it would be a disappointment. Usually those sorts of bets fail. The bottle seemed too cheap to taste good.

A nice surprise.

Sandeman LBV Porto 2004

Dark. Sweet. Complex. Buy it again. Makes me want to chug it, not sip. Not sure why.

A red silk sheet wrapped around a brick. An angry purple child beating on a drum with a greasy chicken leg. A church full of three legged frogs on fire, and the cooking smell fills the neighborhood.

Nice.

Graham's tawny port aged 20 years

If you love me, prove it by buying me a crate of this stuff. $30 a bottle. Worth every penny.

Croft Pink

Good, but kind of like the Kool Ade of port. Adolescent. Punchy. Not complex. No depth. Sweet.

Feels like a good, plain drink to have in the fridge for some unthinking drunkenness.

Might buy it again, but probably not. The coca-cola of port. Feels mass produced somehow. The same way a Coke tastes. It's okay, even enjoyable, but it's just a Coke for fuck's sakes.

It does taste "pink" somehow. Almost flowery.

Uh oh.

Prune juice (or prune nectar) tastes kind of like non-alcoholic port. It is cheaper, though. Has anyone else noticed this? Are there mixed drinks that include prune juice? Must do some research.

Imperial Canadian Sherry

Let's slum it and try this $8 bottle of what I expect to be shit. Science tells us that if I give you a drink and say it costs a lot, you will love it. If I tell you it's cheap drek, you'll hate it. This is cheap drek. But maybe it will be great, despite the screw top and the low price?





I suspect any drink that has fluorescent orange lettering on the label will be a big disapointment. Here goes.

It's the colour of weak tea. It smells like soda pop. It tastes like an ashtray. What the hell is that flavour in the middle? Tastes like rotten oranges.

Or orange pekoe tea left out for six weeks. Harsh, scratchy, and brings out my phlegm. Yuck. This is the drink of the homeless and maybe for cooking. Drinking it straight is just plain mean.

Now all I can taste is orange, or something like orange. Weak and putrid. Yuck.

Thank goodness Michelle bought some gin and tonic for later.

Taylor Fladgate First Estate

My coworkers, knowing I like port, bought me this for my birthday. I've tried Taylor Fladgate stuff before, and found it dull. Specifically, I tried the late bottled vintage 2003.

This first estate stuff tastes like the unaged baby brother of the older stuff. Sweeter, weaker, and a same long, low burn. It's not bad, but not thrilling.

Strangely, I think I like the young taste a little more than the aged stuff, but this first estate port burns harder. It's like a teenage version of the 2003 port - cruder, more violent, more brash. And I found Mr 2003 a bit bossy in the first place.

Acceptable, but a little crude. As with the other Taylor Fladgate port, I suspect this would taste better with something. By itself, it's a bore.