Tour of duty

From strong port to weak beer, how taxes have shaped how and what we drink.

Port drinking is not what it was when men like Pitt the Younger and Samuel Johnson would drink three bottles a day or more. But Christmas is the one time of the year when most of us recreate those heroic days with the Stilton. In our household the Port season stretches from late autumn to spring, drinking a nice tawny is cheaper than putting the central…