the Port and cheese

after dinner, the ladies withdraw to the drawing room, to gossip, and the gentlemen to the study, for Port and cheese and cigars....and some moments away from the ladies....well, forget the cigars, but I still like the port and cheese after dinner....port and marsala and sherry, and vermouth too, etc...these are fortified wines.....wines to which brandy is added, because if you don't up the ethanol in the wine then it might "turn" during a long bumpy voyage in a sailing ship in the old days....so you end up with a cargo you can't get a good price for.....after they found the New World and starting getting chocolate, then you could have port and cheese and chocolate....you might want some walnuts with all that too......