Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Get your Thanksgiving guests buzzed, not drunk
“It’s a great alternative to gin and tonic,” says Beatriz Machado, wine director at the Yeatman Hotel in Gaia, Portugal, of the porto tonico (in English, port and tonic).
The cocktail, tall and chilled, made with a crisp white port rather than the raisin-y red stuff, is a staple up and down the Portuguese coast; after four days exploring Gaia and the cobblestoned hills of Porto, directly across the river, I’ve lost count of how many porto tonicos I’ve had. Machado, when asked how many she serves a day, responds emphatically: “Hundreds!”
Back in the U.S., the drink is harder to find.
2018 brought the summer of the “sessionable” cocktail (a mixed drink made with lower-alcohol spirits, so you can have a few without getting sloppy), and bargoers saw a surge of options starring vermouth, sherry and red port, all hovering around 20 percent alcohol by volume.
But white port, the more mellow, fresh-fruit-forward cousin to red, has taken longer to catch on. This fall, some progress: In September, Taylor, one of the largest port houses, allocated about 500 cases of its signature white port, Chip Dry, to the U.S. for the first time since the 1990s, due to growing demand. The wine, first made in 1934, is a classic, fermented for longer than a typical white port to give it a dry finish, and aged in oak to temper the sweetness of the grapes.
While you can make a port and tonic with a sweet white port, I prefer a dry. It’s still bursting with fruit, but the crisp finish is the perfect partner to a bitter, bubbly tonic. The flavors harmonize, and you get something that’s easy to drink, but not poundable. Refreshing, but not cloying.
This Thanksgiving I’m thinking as much about the ritual of the porto tonico as the taste. In Portugal, the drink is served before nearly every big meal, alongside snacks like Marcona almonds and slippery sardines, as something not-too-boozy to sip before the main event. It’s a smart start, especially if your friends and family show up before you’re even close to done cooking. You don’t even have to do the work.
Set up a station, and let guests pour their own.
At Pharmacia, a popular bar in Lisbon, bartenders garnish their port and tonics with mint. Machado prefers orange zest. Both are great options. The only rule you have to follow: Use quality tonic and port. To make it even more fun, line up a few different bottles of each and have a taste test.
It’ll give you something to argue about that’s not politics.