Boston Wine Expo 2001 -
Deco Dessert Wines

We began our first day at the 2001 Boston Wine Expo by walking around the World Trade Center, looking over the hundreds of wineries which were represented there. There were wineries from Italy, South Africa, Australia, Greece, as well as France and Napa Valley and even local Massachusetts and Rhode Island wineries.

This is but one aisle in the expo

The first table we stopped at featured three dessert wines from Sonoma Valley Portworks. The first, Deco Port, is a blend of port-style wines from California and South Australia, with a secret ingredient. Everyone knows port and chocolate go well together, right? Well, Deco adds chocolate IN to the wine right before bottling, making for a smooth, delicious wine with a decidedly chocolate finish.

Brad and Bill pour out the "ports"

Next we tried Duet, a cream sherry from California. This smooth wine has a hazelnut essence added to it, giving it a light, nutty flavor. Quite good with cheese.

The final offering from Sonoma Valley Portworks is a tawny port from the McLaren Vale in Australia. The tawnies average 17 years in age. The one we tried was rich and buttery.

The Deco and Duet go for around $18/bottle, while the Maduro, because of the aging involved, is priced at $25.

We talked a bit about the growing restrictions on the name "port". This name originally applied just to fortified wines coming out of Oporto, Portugal. As time went on, other countries such as the US and Australia used the name 'port' to describe fortified wines they made. With the European Union consolidating and protecting names, port will not be able to be used in the next few years. Australia is looking to calling its "ports" other names, such as "tawnies" or "rubies". Sonoma Valley Portworks is evaluating which names will meet international requirements yet still indicate to the consumers what product they represent.

Newport Rivers and Robin Garr

Boston Expo 2001 Main Page