Croft port starts to think pink
Port has long been poured in clubs. But night clubs? Yes, port may soon leave the wintry fireplace and appear in two unlikely locations: on the deck mid-summer and in night clubs.
The folks at the venerable port house Croft have now started to think pink. At a press event on an 80 degree, sunny day in Manhattan, Croft unveiled the first ever rose port and poured the pink drink both chilled and on the rocks. It is available for about $20 (find the Croft pink).
Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership that now owns Croft, explained the making of the port. He went to the Port authority (not, in his country, an entity that runs bus stations) and petitioned for the ability to make a rose. They told him that port is either red or white and if he wanted to do a rose, a new administrative category would have to be made, a process that might take ten years. With brio and speed usually reserved for the New World vintners, Bridge slipped it through the administrative cracks as a “ruby,†the youngest port aged in large vats.
The resulting port is pink in color thanks to brief skin contact during fermentation. But then it is made like a traditional ruby port and the fermentation is stopped with the addition of a distilled spirit resulting in a finished port with 19.5 percent alcohol and 94 grams of residual sugar–and pink. To me it was betwixt and between, neither wine nor port with notes of strawberry and rhubarb akin to a rose but the punch and sweetness of a port. I think it would benefit from bubbles, as in adding soda water.
That might not stop fashionistas from ordering it up. Bridge said that he made a “bold†500,000 liters of Croft Pink last year but after “huge excitement†in Hong Kong last week, he said they “might run out.†Now, he’s now turning his sights on the US, starting with New York City first and later Texas and Florida. Since the Cosmopolitan has jumped the shark, I’m surprised that they weren’t swilling this pink drink in the new Sex and the City. Croft Pink–it’s not your grandfather’s port.
croftpink.com
On June 4th, 2008 at 4:00 pm ,Joe wrote:
Pink port? You can’t fault them for trying – pink sells better than ruby these days.
On June 5th, 2008 at 12:15 pm ,bobzaguy wrote:
as if ruby sells period…
Pink gets as pink does – thems fashionistas in Texas are sure to pronounce this as swill, unless it has horns and spurs attached.
Or they gets Karl Rove to front for their cause.
On June 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm ,Delondra Williams wrote:
I say, throw some fruit in there and call it sangria.
On June 6th, 2008 at 12:42 pm ,Brian wrote:
I saw this at the London International Wine Trade Fair two weeks ago. Great packaging, but didn’t have time to try the product.
On August 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm ,Dorien Bakker (Holland) wrote:
Tastes beautifully!
On March 18th, 2011 at 9:28 am ,Graeme Davis wrote:
Nice port but strictly a summer specialism – I had it with the key additions of ice and thirty degrees celsius heat and it was great.