Port

One of our favorite spots was the Solar do Vinho do Porto, which people love to hate on the internet. Like many places with excellent product, the servers get grumpy when tourists ask “what’s good?” Answer: it’s all good, it’s Port.

I don’t usually drink port, but when I do, I prefer a 1982 Dalva Colheita

Time for a port lesson, if you don’t care skip to the next image.

Port starts its life like wine. Mash up some grapes, let the yeast go to work chowing down on grape sugars, and voila, out comes alcohol. In the case of port, this glorious process is interrupted. Partway through the fermentation, high proof alcohol (typically grape brandy) is added to the mix. This brings the ABV up to about 20%. No yeast can survive that kind of environment, so fermentation stops.  This is why port is sweeter than most wine; not all the sugars from the grapes got converted to alcohol by the yeast.

Breaking it down, there are three well known kinds of Port.

1. “Ruby” port is a fresh bottling of unaged port, which may have been stored in concrete or stainless. It will probably not get better with age.
2. “Vintage” port is port from a year that was deemed exceptional by that maker, that has spent 20 months in oak. On average there are about three vintages/decade. Vintage port is not ready to drink when it goes to the bottle. It’s bottled with sediment, and the contents will mature in an unopened bottle for decades. Once opened you’re supposed to drink the bottle within 2-3 days.
3. “Tawny” port is aged port that spent its time in wooden barrels. No age statement on the bottle usually means ~3 years. Official age statements are 10, 20, 30, and “more than 40” years. Once it’s in the bottle, it’s already done all the aging it will do.  It also keeps relatively well once opened, since it oxidized thoroughly with all that time in the wood.

Our favorites were these two beauties; a 1982 Dalva Colheita tawny, and a 2007 Late Bottle Vintage (LBV) that I forgot to write down the maker on. Neither of them quite fit into the categories above.

Tawny on the left, LBV on the right

The Colheita tawnys have a harvest date (in this case 1982) that all grapes in the bottle came from. All are aged at least 7 years in oak, though often times more. Presumably this one was at least 25 in the barrel, since the bottle was relatively new.

The Late Bottle Vintage (LBV) style is also a little bit of a hybrid. Like vintage port it’s all grapes from the same year, but unlike vintage port it spends significantly longer in oak (4-6 years). It can mature a little in the bottle as well. It’s basically a poor man’s vintage port.

As for taste? The tawny had the rich raisin/nut/vanilla flavors I love in the style. The LBV had more fresh grape taste, though maybe not as much complexity. We’re generally fans of the tawny style, which I guess makes us not very classy or something.

Lambic

Our AirBnB happened to be about a block away from Lisbon’s top beer bar. I swear we didn’t plan it that way. Portugal (like most of Europe) is still on the IPA kick in the craft scene. We stuck to the belgian stuff.

The first night we went in I tried a St. Bernardus ABT 12 and Tiara picked up an Oude Beersel gueuze. While we were drinking those, I noticed they had some bottles of De Cam Oude Lambiek. This is one of the esoteric rarities you get excited about when you go too far down the beer rabbit hole. It’s not that the beer is super popular (like, say, Cantillon), it’s just that they barely make any of it. It’s basically some dude in the Belgian country side who gets barrels of wort from Girrardin, Boon, Drie Fonteinen, and Lindemans, ages them in old barrels, then blends them together. It’s not even his full time job. De Cam turns out about 128 barrels/year. Compare that to 1,500/year for a mid-sized craft brewery like Russian River, or 640,000/year for Lagunitas and you can understand why you don’t usually see De Cam on the shelf.

We came back on a rainy day to try a bottle of the Oude Lambiek.

First impressions were mixed. The style is totally flat. It’s also very dry, so the experience is closer to drinking a crisp white wine than it is to drinking a pilsner. I’m still coming around on the idea of flat beer, and honestly I think I would have preferred it with some bubbles in it. But the flavor was great. Nice tartness, good funky aromatics, and some lemony apricot fruit flavors.

Bonus Pictures

If you made it this far, you deserve some pictures.

This first one’s a railing. Nothing unusual about it. Just a railing. If you’re seeing male anatomy all over it, that’s on you.

I think they’re little towers or something.

Here’s a piece of very thorough yarn-bombing:

And lastly, Lisbon’s worst bathroom:

Careful on that climb to the second floor

Bam.  Stunning, right?  We spent one of our favorite days ever at Plitvice Lakes in Croatia last week.  It rained throughout our entire visit and we hardly noticed.  The park was bursting with fall colors and the waterfalls were near their peak.  The walkways were even washed out and closed in some places due to the high water level.  

The trails through the park are mostly comprised of these boardwalks, which take you really close to the falls and allow you to get water in your shoes.  It’s awesome.

Wet toes, don’t care.

Because of the rain and it now being off-season, we had the place mostly to ourselves except for a few intrepid tour groups.  I’ve heard that during high season these boardwalks can be a nightmare, as there’s not much room to pass by other people.

Every time you turn a corner there is another amazing view.  If there isn’t already a jigsaw puzzle with one of these vistas, there should be.  (Love the seriousness of this video about puzzle quality.)

We took tons of photos of fall foliage until our fingers got too numb to operate our phones.

Happy but can’t feel his fingers

The only thing this trip was missing was some hot chocolate or apple cider.  Also dry socks.   Hopefully we’ll have a chance to return to Plitvice with these things in hand.  The park looks like it would be amazing in the winter too.  Watch this for a short meditation.

We met up with Gary in Dubrovnik and we wasted no time in setting out to explore the city together.  While hiking was an option, we had lots to see on our first day so we opted for the speedier cable car to take us up the hills behind Dubrovnik for views of the city and the bay.

Ian and I had already been in Dubrovnik for a few days but we had been avoiding old town and the main attractions so we could see them with Gary.  The views did not disappoint!  It had been raining all morning and the previous day so we were really fortunate to catch this break in the weather and to be able to see the city so clearly.

After taking lots of photos we headed back down the hill and tackled the city walls.  The walls are a set walking tour – you pay to climb up and you walk in a loop in one direction.  We were so glad we went late in the day and during off-season.  I can’t imagine how crowded this would be during August!

We stopped often to admire the red roofs.  We caught some nice “golden hour” light and stayed on the walls for as much of the sunset as we could before they closed for the night and we were kicked out.

King’s Landing!

Got a panorama of Gary taking a panorama.

The old town is almost entirely tourist establishments, so it was nice to get a peek here and there of people’s actual homes and everyday life:

For dinner we treated ourselves to seafood and wine in a cute courtyard – such a great end to our first day with Gary!

Toasting with the 2015 Zwanze beer

While we toasted in Belgium, our friends Brian and Josh in San Francisco celebrated with us from the other side of the world. We geeked out digitally on iMessage:

You can also read Brian’s state-side write-up of the event, complete with pictures of the puny American pours.

Zwanze Pre-Party

While you can get the Zwanze beer around the world on the day of the event, in Belgium they pull out all the stops for a three-day Cantillon-fest. A lot of rarities from the cellar were on offer at Moeder Lambic, a Brussels bar that works closely with Cantillon..

This is likely the best Cantillon list anywhere in the world.

We happened to catch a brief patch of sun at Moeder, so we made the best of it and powered through some ‘loons.

Fou Foune (left) and 2009 Loue Pepe Kriek (right). Sausage made with Cantillon gueuze (front)

That bright orange beer on the left is summer in a cup. It’s a 1 week old apricot beer, and the fruit flavor was just bursting out.  Smelling it was a huge whiff of fresh ripe apricots. Just an outstanding beer.

On the right is a 6 year old cherry beer. The Lou Pepe series is designed to hold up to aging; they use extra fruit so the flavor will last, and unblended lambic so each vintage varies a little. The result is a really complex fruity beer that’s bone dry.

Cantillon Saint Gilloise 2009 and Cuvee Bija (Zwanze 2014)

Our next round was an aged Saint Gilloise, which is a dry-hopped lambic, plus last year’s Zwanze beer.  The aged Saint Gilloise was still a damn fine beer, though I think I prefer it fresh.

Last year’s Zwanze is also a dry-hopped beer (Grand Cru Iris base), with the addition of a small amount of cherries. The result is a delightful tart beer with hints of caramel. It tastes like cherry pie in the best possible way.

Saint Lamvinus

We were going to call it quits after two rounds, but Saint Lamvinus was on the menu, a beer I’d heard a lot about and never had the chance to try. Saint Lamvinus is a lambic with Merlot grapes aged in Bordeaux barrels.

This beer has the most amazing nose of anything I’ve ever tried. Tiara described it as “tromping through a muddy vineyard.” I took one sniff and got a huge smell memory of being a kid walking home from the bus after the rain. The taste is all grapes with only a hint of that earthy mustiness, but I kept going back to the glass just to smell it.  I need to figure out how to get my hands/nose on some more of this stuff.

Bonus: “The Best Beer in the World” – Westvleteren 12

For several years running Westvleteren 12 (or Westy 12 to the in-crowd) was rated #1 in the world by the beer community site Ratebeer (it currently hovers at a paltry #2). It is as obnoxiously rare as it is good; the beer is only sold by monks on site by appointment. Limit 1 order per person/license plate per 60 days. Yeesh.  We spotted a bar in Brussels that had a couple bottles available, so we gave it a try.

The only branding on Westvleterens beer itself is on the cap; the bottles are blank.

I wrote down my “tasting notes” like a good little beer geek. I got lots of banana, chocolate, molasses, blackstrap rum, and malt.  It was good, maybe even great. I would not choose it as the world’s best beer, but honestly the crazy dark/strong belgian beers are not my favorite category, so it probably never had a chance.

It is probably the best abt/quad I’ve had, YMMV. I’ve read that the recipe is the same as St Bernardus 12, which is a lot easier to get your hands on, so start there first before deciding you need to make a pilgrimage.

Alternatively, if you want a strong dark beer in a hurry, you can just grab a Chimay Blue at the airport.

Oh Brussels, we will miss you and your amazing beer culture

I regret not taking a picture of the menu, because now it’s all on my memory, which, frankly is not up to the task. Drink names were weird. Like really weird. I couldn’t find the current menu, but previous drinks had names like “Fishing, But the Easy Way” and “Holy Shit – Is That Mary?”

Some strangely named drink

This is Tiara’s first order, a rum and banana concoction. Overall it was just a smart drink.  Banana and rum are like coconut and rum; a great pairing, that has been horribly perverted by the synthetic alcohol industry (looking at you, Malibu).  Needless to say Bryk was making its own banana rum, and it was delicious.

The garnish plays with a traditional absinthe preparation; the slotted absinthe spoon is actually holding a rolled up smoked dried banana thing. Think banana fruit roll, then try really hard to imagine it being good, and you’ve got the idea.

I honestly have no recollection what was in my first drink. I do remember linking it though… Apologies to all our devoted wanderalongs.

This was my round 2. Which was a little more memorable. Bryk is making their own gin in collaboration with a nearby distiller.  I asked the bartender for something using it. What came back was this martini-alike. The juice itself was good, but for some strange reason they chose to coat the glass with vanilla sugar. It didn’t make any sense, and actually detracted from the drink. Just goes to show; everyone needs an editor.

The last drink was a coffee concoction that Tiara ordered. A+ for presentation; they have a cocktail-sized mason jar with latch that perfectly allows a straw to peak out.

The drink itself was more of a B. Good coffee flavor, although a little weird combination with citrus.

Verdict

Bryk was definitely the most creative of the bars we tried in Berlin. Sadly, most creative does not necessarily mean best drinks. Tiara’s banana rum drink was possibly our favorite drink in Berlin, but the others had some flaws that put them below the average. Still, if you’re into cocktails blazing new ground, Bryk is a good place to check out. Also they solidly won on complimentary bar snacks; their dill popcorn was phenomenal.

In my defense, Beckett looks like he’s been through a lot

As I mentioned in my previous post, Beckett’s Kopf is owned by the same party as Lost in Grub Street. Though Lost in Grub Street went a little weird, Beckett’s Kopf has been tuning their game since opening in 2004, which is practically the epoch of the craft cocktail scene. Unsurprisingly they nail the classic speakeasy vibe.  And like any good speakeasy, it was “stumble into the wall” dark in there. So photos are on the grainy side.

Times of Cascara, served in fancy bone china.

First off, they had a good esoteric “wow” factor. One of the ingredients in the Times of Cascara is “a tea from the fruit of a coffee cherry.”  I had never had anything made with the outside of coffee, and now I want more of it. Add in some cognac and batavia arrack, and it was a complex sipper. I’ve always been a fan of Earl Grey in the morning, but Times of Cascara may well change breakfast forever.

The Knickerbocker, a “prehistoric mai tai”

I should mention that the menu was all in German, so we were shooting in the (literal and figurative) dark. Tiara went for the Knickerbocker, based on reading the words “Mai Tai” and “berries.”  It drank more like a sour than a Mai Tai, but was still well balanced and delicious.

Now that we had the bartender’s ear, we were able to get advice on our next drinks. I went with the Ford, essentially a genever martini infused with wormwood and a lemon twist. Delicious. I’m a big fan of genever, it’s got a more nuanced complexity than it’s modern juniper driven cousin, and is the main component in my second favorite long drink, the John Collins.

Side note: most modern bars make their John Collins with bourbon. This is wrong. Those of you lucky enough to live in San Francisco can go to Comstock Saloon to get one done right. 

Tiara got the Lusitanian, a mix of Portuguese brandy, tawny port and cherry liquer.  The net effect had a lot in common with a manhattan, which is probably what they’re going for with the name; Lusitania was a Roman province in what is now Portugal.

Verdict

This was our favorite cocktail spot in Berlin. Beckett’s Kopf strikes the right balance of making unique drinks with a decent atmosphere. Not having to fight for a seat was also a big plus.

It wasn’t the mind-melting perfection of Le Syndicat in Paris, but it was every bit as good as our favorite bars at home.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme
This was the perfect book to read while starting our vacation and anticipating all the food I was going to eat in France.  I gained a lot of appreciation for Julia and for the challenges of writing a fool-proof recipe (which hers always are).  I’m excited to dive back into Mastering the Art of French Cooking when we return home.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Another right place, right time book.  I really enjoyed reading this book while in Paris, where much of the story is set, as I could really put the story and places into context.  This was a really memorable novel; it won the Pulitzer for a reason.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
A classic I had never read.  This is a beloved book by many but I don’t feel like I took a lot away from it, other than appreciation that my relationship in now way resembles the relationships Carver depicted.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
I love Murakami, and this is the book that made him an icon in Japan.  I really enjoyed it and, like all his books, it made me want to go back to Japan.  I love how much space and quietness there is in his writing.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Ian recommended this book to me as it was one of his favorite science fiction books when he was younger.  I’m totally hooked on the story and want to read the remaining works in the trilogy.  I’m very surprised no one has made a movie of this story.

Maus by Art Spiegelman
The most surprising of all the books I’ve read on this trip, this is a graphic novel that Ian suggested I read right after we visited Auschwitz.  I’ve never been into graphic novels or comics, but this is an amazing true story of the artist’s grandfather’s life during World War II and at Auschwitz.  It is beautifully told and drawn and it will definitely stick with me.

I don’t want to grow up, ’cause if I did, I couldn’t be a bolshevik kid