Best port for Christmas
Discover the best ports to buy. From ruby and tawny to vintage, there's a port to suit your taste and budget. See how our wine expert, Henry Jeffreys, rated them during our taste test
Port is made by taking very ripe grapes grown in the Douro Valley, crushing them to extract as much colour and flavour as possible and leaving them to ferment. While there is still lots of sugar, brandy is added to kill the yeasts and stop fermentation, leaving a wine of about 20% alcohol that’s intensely sweet, fruity and bold.
The cheapest ruby ports spend a couple of years in wood before being bottled. At the top of the tree sit vintage ports, which are only made in the best years. Ideally they need around 15-20 years minimum in bottle before being ready to drink. There are also single quinta ports, which come from a particular year but mature quicker, and late bottled vintage (LBV), matured in large wooden vats for six years before bottling ready to drink.
There are also tawny ports, which aged in barrels with oxygen contact like sherry, until they lose their colour and take on a nutty quality. They can be superb and are sold ready to drink with no need to decant. Finally, you can buy white ports that make great aperitifs, especially when mixed with sherry.
Keep an eye out for offers around Christmas time, sometimes you can pick up some bargains from larger retailers. Some say port should just be drunk in December, but it can be enjoyed year-round. Tawnies, in particular, are surprisingly versatile and pair well with any season.
Read on to find which ports are best. For more, visit our review section and find over 400 buyers' guides, including taste tests of gin, whisky, vodka, rum, brandy and more.
Best port to buy at a glance
- Best budget port: ASDA Extra Special LBV 2019, £14.99
- Best port for a light, nutty finish: Waitrose No.1 Reserve Tawny Port, £15.99
- Best port for complex, vintage depth: Krohn Porto Colheita 2006, £35.99
- Best port for aging potential: Graham's Porto Vintage Quinta dos Malvedos 2012, £33.99
- Best port for a standout splurge: Fonseca 2003, £66.35
- Best port for cocktails: Graham’s Blend No 5 White Port, £21
- Best value port: Tesco Finest 10-year-old tawny port, £14.50
- Best tawny port: Sandeman 20-year-old tawny port, £47.95
Best port to buy 2024
ASDA Extra Special LBV 2019
Available from ASDA (£14)
You get a lot of port for your money with this one. It has a floral nose with a touch of raisin and plum. The palate is ripe and full-bodied. Great fun.
Available from:
Waitrose No.1 Reserve Tawny Port
Available from Waitrose (£15.99)
This is made by the Symingtons, the family that owns Grahams port. You’ll find candied fruit on the nose while the palate is sweet and light, with an earthy finish like biting into a Brazil nut.
Available from:
Krohn Port Colheita 2006
Available from Grape & Grind (£35.99)
A colheita is a tawny that comes from a single year. Krohn specialises in such wines. It tastes of very ripe strawberry fruit, orange peel, and walnuts with an incredible tang to it.
Available from:
Graham's Port Vintage Quinta dos Malvedos 2012
Available from Waitrose (£33.99)
What an incredible deep colour! The smell is striking too, intensely herbal and floral. There’s plenty of ripe fruit and the tannins are soft. Drinking really well now but this should last and last.
Available from:
Fonseca 2003
Available from Amathus (£66.35)
This is the best port we’ve tasted this year, so if you’re looking to push the boat out, look no further. It’s opulently fruit, think sloes and blackberries, with supple tannins, fresh with a haunting perfume. On sensational form.
Available from:
Graham’s Blend No 5 white port
Available from Amazon (£21), Waitrose (£27.99)
Best port for cocktails
Rating: 4/5
ABV: 19%
A modern take on white port made with two grape varieties, Malvasia Fina and Moscatel Gallega which are cold-fermented and sold unaged to preserve primary fruit. It’s intensely aromatic with floral, honey and citrus fruits, and makes a cracking alternative to gin when mixed with tonic.
Read our full review of Graham’s Blend No 5 white port.
Available from:
Tesco Finest 10-year-old tawny port
Available from Tesco (£14.50)
Best value port
Rating: 4/5
ABV: 20%
Made by one of Porto's great families, the Symingtons, this is another wine that offers great value. It's a blend of wines with an average age of 10 years, giving it the ripe strawberry fruitiness of young wines but with the nuttiness of older ones. One to give people who think they don't like port.
Read our full review of Tesco Finest 10-year-old tawny
Available from:
Sandeman 20-year-old tawny port
Available from Amazon (£47.95)
Best tawny port
Rating: 5/5
ABV: 20%
The complexity is astounding with orange peel, tobacco and masses of candied fruit. And just when you think it's over, a wave of walnuts hits you and goes on for a good 15 minutes. I don’t think you will find so much pleasure anywhere for the money. Blimey!
Read our full review of Sandeman 20-year-old tawny
Available from:
How to store port once opened?
Ruby and vintage ports should ideally be drunk within five days of opening. After that period, while still alcoholic and drinkable, they will start to lose freshness and taste raisin-y. Don’t leave your port in a decanter for months. Put the cork back in the bottle or stopper the decanter, and keep it somewhere cool and dark like a cupboard. Tawny ports are different because they are aged with oxygen contact and will only deteriorate very slowly. Once opened a tawny port will last for a month or more. It’s a style that suits chilling so why not keep the bottle in the fridge?
How to drink port?
To decant or not to decant, that is the question. The ageing process will leave sediment in vintage port. To remove this, stand the bottle up overnight and then carefully pour into a glass jug or decanter with a light or candle shining at the neck of the bottle, when you start to see a heavy sediment, stop pouring. You’ll probably lose about half a glass of port (which is handy for putting in gravy.) Most ports won’t need decanting, however. Tawny ports are very nice chilled whereas other types suit being served cool but not cold. Too hot and they will taste too alcoholic. Port is deceptively strong, 20%, so it’s worth serving it in smaller glasses. Something like a sherry copita works best.
What to eat with port?
In Britain, we tend to associate vintage port with stilton but it also goes brilliantly with hard cheeses like mature cheddar and comte. While there’s nothing better with Welsh Rarebit than a tawny port, saucisson sec and cured ham are also a good fit with this style. Meanwhile young vintage or LBV have an affinity with chocolate - try them with these Melting Chocolate Puddings. Don’t be afraid to mix your port: white port is great with tonic, and ruby and cheaper tawnies can be used in cocktails in place of vermouth. And finally you don’t have to serve port with anything, a glass of chilled tawny makes a fine aperitif.
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