The chill of winter isn’t the only time to consider a warming glass of Port, the stuff with a capital P. But I can think of few other wines that so befit the climate.

The British love their Portuguese Port year-around, so much so that many of the great Port houses now have English names because they were bought by wealthy Englishmen. The names include the six owned by the house of Symington -- Dow, Grahamn, Gould Campbell, Quarles Harris, Smith Woodhouse and Ware -- as well as Robertson, Cockburn, and Croft.

As such, Port is nearly as great a part of British tradition as is the royal family. The lore of the drink is extensive, notably the vintage-dated stuff that carries images of dusty old bottles stashed in a dank cellar for decades. The best are long-lived and treasured.

During revolutionary times, Americans drank a lot of fortified wine such as Port and madeira, but we don’t view port as an almost national tradition the way the Brits do.

Port’s English heritage can be seen to this day in private clubs (men settle into oversized, fireplace-facing leather armchairs with a glass of Port) and universities (a special pleasure for professors and students alike). Even modest pubs offer it to ward off the chill.

One reason the great Port producers of Oporto, Porugal, have a more difficult time selling the stuff here is that many Americans are old enough to remember when port, the stuff with the lower-case p, was really not a very interesting drink. It was cheap, hot, harsh, and intended to create a buzz.

Mostly, it was downed it from the bottle, out of a paper sack. Continued...