A Port-Lover’s Guide to Cornwall

[Alex Bridgeman]

Many of us are regular or occasional visitors to Cornwall and I thought it might be helpful to have a thread to capture any places we find particularly sympathetic to fortified wine drinkers.

I’ll start with Johns Wine & Spirits on the right at the far end of Fore Street as you walk from the St Ives train station.

On a very recent visit they had an impressive range of fortified wine covering Port, Sherry, Marsala, Madeira, Vermouth and Douro Moscatel (Niepoort’s Mos-CAT-el). They also used Niepoort’s Dry White in a fabulous variation of White Port & Tonic which has a shot of Campari added to give it an extra kick of bitterness.

Highlights from the bottle shop included a 2023 Añada Sherry (I can’t remember the producer!), Uncle John Marsala, Madeiras from Barbeito and a very wide range of Port going back to Warre 1991, Graham 10, 20 and 40YO and Niepoort 30YO.

Prices were on the good side of average retail. For example, Skeffington 2011 was £50, Warre 1991 was £90 and Graham 40YO was £160. In addition to being a bottle shop, Johns Wines is also a cocktail and wine bar. There’s a range of wines by the glass served under Coravin going up to £50 for a glass of Tignanello — or you can buy a bottle, pay a corkage fee (but I didn’t ask what the fee was) and drink the bottle while gazing down on St Ives Harbour and beach.