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Wine Advisor Express: Would you share your Port with a fly? Please indulge me for just a moment while I share with you a personal story. There's a point to this, and at the end, I will seek your opinion. Last night, after dinner, my bride and I decided to celebrate the arrival of September by enjoying the rare pleasure of a particularly fine Port. Although it had been a searing late-summer day with the temperature in the 90s and humidity to match, the air-conditioning was cranked up and a glass of Port seemed like a pleasant way to mark the promise of autumn to come. The evening sun was painting the landscape outside our windows in rich, saturated colors. Soft classical music was playing. We settled in for a relaxing hour with each other and our Port ... and suddenly she let out a distinctly unladylike string of bellows. "Ack!" she yelled. "Ack! Gross! Gross!" Somehow a house fly had found its way into her glass, and it was struggling to stay afloat. I think it was doing the back stroke. She raced to the kitchen, bearing the glass aloft. I followed. With my help, we got the little creature out with a spoon. She insisted on leaving it to recuperate on a napkin. And then she started to pour the wine down the drain! I grabbed the glass out of her hand, bellowing "What are you doing!?" She looked at me in horrified disbelief: "Are you going to drink that? It had a fly in it!" Well? Of course I was going to drink it. And I did, too. And I did not tell her about it, a little later, when a mosquito plunged in. So my question to you, friends, is a simple one: Would you share your Port with a fly? Suppose the Port was really good Port ... and it cost $30 for a half-bottle? For our mutual amusement, I have set up a little special edition of our Wine Lovers' Voting Booth to take an informal poll on this important wine-appreciation issue. I hope you'll take a moment to drop in and give us your opinion: http://www.wineloverspage.com/votebooth/flyques.shtml. Porto Niepoort Vintage 1994 ($29.99/375 ml) Inky ruby color, almost black, with just a glimmer of clear rose at the rim. Classic Port aromas of deep black fruit and licorice are framed by a hint of menthol. It's strong and sweet in flavor, with balance and elegance that makes it seem almost light in weight at first; but the body, firm acidity and substantial but palatable tannins demonstrate that this one is still a baby, showing great promise but with a lot of maturing to do. U.S. importer: Martine's Wines Inc., San Rafael, Calif. (Sept. 6, 2001) FOOD MATCH: Sipped alone for after-dinner enjoyment. I am not counting the fly. Administrivia This is Wine Advisor Express, daily edition of The 30 Second Wine Advisor, distributed Tuesdays through Fridays. For archives of previous articles, and to read more about wine, visit Wine Lovers' Page, http://www.wineloverspage.com. To subscribe, change your E-mail address, switch from daily to the weekly (Mondays only) distribution, or for any other administrative matters, E-mail wine@wineloverspage.com. Please be sure to include the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so we can find your record. Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 Copyright 2001 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved. Subscribe (free) to The 30 Second Wine Advisor