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4. Of the various styles of port the most ambitious is vintage port, invented by the British and still drunk by them almost exclusively, though there is a small market in the US. Define vintage port.

5. What happens to a vintage port:

(a) before and

(b) after bottling?

6. Vintage port is traditionally drunk at the end of a meal, either on its own or with cheese. Which cheese or cheeses does it go best with?

7. In recent years the shippers have been drawing our attention to styles of port that lack the “mystique” of (and are cheaper than) vintage port, but are a cut above the standard rubies and tawnies. Describe:

(a) Late Bottled Vintage Port

(b) Late Bottled Port

(c) Vintage Character Port.

8. Some white port is made and, especially in France, drunk as an aperitif. How is it made? You can be very brief.

9. Port and lemon (fizzy lemonade) is an old charladies’ drink, and very good it is on a hot summer’s afternoon, but few mixed drinks include port. However, there is one, also known of old, that is intended for nothing more dashing than the relief of diarrhoea. What does it consist of?

10. What was the reaction of the so-called three-bottle men to the arrival of port-as-we-know-it (more or less) in the early eighteenth century?

SHERRY

Like port, sherry was developed for the English market. In former times its different varieties were drunk as a table wine, before meals, after meals, at mid-morning with a biscuit. Now no longer universally seen at the dinner-tables of the well-off, it often appears in its drier forms as a prelude to a serious meal and as an accompaniment to first courses like smoked salmon, avocado and consommé.

1. Where do sherry the wine, and “sherry” the word, come from?

2. “A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it appre-hensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery and delectable shapes; which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice: but the sherris warms it and makes it course from the innards to the parts extreme.” Who said so?

3. There are plenty of references to sherris-sack, or just sack, at the period of the above. What does “sack” mean in this context?

4. “Sherry is dull, naturally dull,” said Dr. Johnson, normally quite tolerant of alcoholic drinks (except at the times when he was off them altogether). What had he got against sherry?

5. Sherry is traditionally made by the solera system. Describe this briefly.

6. While sherry is developing in the barrel a thick white layer of yeast forms on its surface. Give its name.

7. Sherry is naturally a dry wine, but some types are sweetened to varying degrees. Arrange in ascending order of sweetness:

Oloroso Amontillado Manzanilla Fino Cream.

8. Quite a lot of Fino sherry gets drunk at its place of origin, mostly in half-bottles. Is this thrift, temperance or what?

9. Montilla is a type of wine made about 100 miles from Jerez, very enjoyable and rather like sherry in taste, but with one big difference in its composition. What is it?

10. What is:

(a) a sherry-cobbler

(b) a sherryvalley?

MADEIRA , MARSALA AND OTHERS

The fortification—“making strong”—of wines by adding spirit during or after fermentation is a widespread practice, originally intended as a preservative measure or to cheer up thin wine rather than in pursuit of any kind of quality. But a number of such wines have been highly regarded for many years, though in general the demand for them has fallen off more recently.

1. Madeira, a fortified wine once in the same league as sherry and port, comes from an island of that name in the east Atlantic. What does the name mean, and with what common English words is it connected?

2. Four main types of Madeira are made. The most obvious