Some drinks are so inexorably tied up with specific seasons and circumstances that it’s hard to imagine them anywhere else. Like bumping into a teacher outside school or witnessing someone take off their shoes during a flight. It’s legal, sure, but there’s always a moment of deep discomfort and confusion before acceptance. And that’s pretty much how I imagine many people feel about drinking port in summer. Or, indeed, at any time of the day that isn’t evening, or served alongside anything that isn’t an intriguing, veiny cheese.
Consider Porto, the city responsible for bringing the drink to the rest of the world – do you think that, when the temperatures creep up, everyone there stops drinking the stuff? No, they find new ways to enjoy it. Improvise, adapt, overcome.
The most popular way to incorporate the joys of port into summertime drinking is to serve it with a mixer. Enter the port tonic (portonic?), a likely combination of the fortified wine of the region and the British presence in its trade. (For a basic portonic, fill a glass with ice, add 50ml port and top with tonic, although you probably guessed that already.) You can make it with pretty much any port, depending on how precious you are about swirling your top-shelf stuff into tonic or soda water. The last time I was in Porto, I was visiting Cockburn’s, and white port and tonic was the soupe du jour – for a typical serving, add a wedge of lemon or lime and a sprig of mint.
Looking for something a bit different? I asked a few professionals. “As well as serving it with soda, we also use white port in longer, citrus-led punches,” says Anna Šebelová of Edinburgh’s Timberyard. “We love it in the likes of a 50:50 martini with an aromatic gin, where it replaces vermouth beautifully.”
“With dessert, I sometimes serve an upgrade on the average port and tonic,” says Andy Beynon, chef/owner of Behind in London. “I top it up with verjus, which adds a floral element from the unripened grapes. It’s perfect with summer dishes featuring mango and lime or coconut sorbet.”
Anything else? Everything I’ve learned about the existence of the Cheeky Vimto cocktail has been against my will. It’s a 50ml measure of ruby port topped up with WKD Blue, something I haven’t had the, er, pleasure of trying yet, but if that’s your bag, go for it.
Ports, tonics, Cheeky Vimtos: whatever you’re drinking, never mind what you serve it in – a highball, a rocks glass, a wine glass, a pint glass. It’s a mere vessel to allow the transportation of liquid sustenance to your body when the world is on fire, in more ways than one.
Four ports to sip while the sun’s out
Morrisons Ruby Port £9.50 (75cl), 19%. Bright cherries and deep cocoa notes. Use for a Cheeky Vimto, or otherwise.
Cockburn’s Fine White Port £14.50 (75cl) Sainsbury’s, 19%. The white port that defined my last trip to Porto. Add a wedge of lemon and some mint.
Niepoort White Rabbit Dry White Port £21 (75cl) The Whisky Exchange, 19.5%. A nutty, dry, luxurious white port inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Baronesa de Vilar Rosé Port £10.99 (50cl) Laithwaites, 19.5%. And now for something completely different: pink port from a historic port-making family.