While bitter winter still slips through window seams, turn to Port. Nothing warms an evening’s end better. Styles range from cheap and charming non-vintage Ruby to decades-old Vintage Ports. Somewhere in the middle are Late Bottled Vintage Ports, like Warre’s 2000 LBV.

British shippers create Vintage Ports only when an exceptional harvest and a willing market coincide. The best fruit gets fermented and fortified, goes into barrel for two to three years, then bottle, after which Americans forget to let it age for the needed thirty years.

Late Bottled Vintage Port is different. It’s cheaper than Vintage, potentially as rich and you can drink it now. Whatever brilliant wine didn’t make it into the Vintage is kept in barrel and released later as an LBV.

Warre’s LBV was harvested in 2000, fortified with spirit to 20% alcohol, which stopped fermentation and retained its sugars. It was matured in cask for four years and in bottle another four, hence the name Late Bottled. This barrel and bottle time means you can drink it now. But let it rest upright and then pour slowly: because Warre obsesses about not filtering or fining, there will be sediment.

Warre’s LBV is a belly dancer: athletic yet alluring, its dark eyes dart at you but leave as quickly. Let this LBV lure you with woven notes of violets, blackberries and spice. The balance of body and brightness is pitch perfect. This is what so many wines want to be. Yet this LBV is far too complex for competition. It will wear away these last dreary nights of winter with its warm berried curves and spiced staccato dance.http://www.warre.com/