2000 Fonseca LBV Port

[Todd Pettinger]

Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage – 2000
Bottled in 2005. I believe this is filtered.

Pours a very dark purple, bordering on ‘almost-black’ yet remains less opaque than say the Noval LBV. Spirity nose is the first impression, fortunately not as raw-spirity as say, the Fonseca Bin 27, which has a horrible nose when first poured/decanted but is less so on the palate. A touch of earthy minerals; not much fruit to be found here. Almost nothing in the way of distinguishable flavours either. Because it was so closed and mute, I decided to decant it, which I don’t often do with LBVs that are filtered.

It took almost an hour but when this wine started opening up, it was much more lovely. The nose still shows surprisingly little fruit, but the alcohol becomes less prominent. The palate gains some prunes, an after thought of blackberries, and spearmint. A short finish makes this a “nondescript” port at the moment – I really have nothing else that I can say at this point. Perhaps lengthy decanting needed?

+2 hours
Even though 2 hours is not a lot of time, this wine is showing much better than when first opened. Some plum and raspberry notes. Sweet, ripe boysenberries on the mid-palate, and the alcohol has fully integrated, leaving no hint of the brutal, spirity beast that was present before. Decent tannins as well. Grapes in this mid- to late-palate. The mint seems to have left was well.

Work prevented me from getting a taste in the next day.

+36 hours
The nose has gone extremely harsh and astringent. I almost smell the VA, which is a pretty big turn-off. I have opened containers of paint thinner that smell more appetizing.

The palate is not as harsh as suggested by the nose (thankfully!) Some fruit is still lingering, mainly grapes, but is weaker than at the 2 hour mark. No mint at all that I can detect.

This would lead me to believe that I missed the optimum drinking window for this port. Too bad as this was my first time sampling this particular bottle and it was more money than I would typically pay for a filtered LBV. I will have to try again and get a wider range of sample notes to better determine and give the port a fair chance.

Todd