2000 Jose Maria Da Fonseca & Van Zeller LBV Port

[Todd Pettinger]

Jose Maria Fonseca & van Zellar Late Bottled Vintage – 2000
Bottled in 2004. Unfiltered. Driven cork. First time I have tried anything by this producer, despite the fact that the first Vintage Port I ever bought was a bottle of their 2003 Vintage.

Deep, dark purple, edging on black colour. A strong, tannic nose, which hold true on the mouth-puckering first sip straight after decanting. Will be revisiting this after a few hours as it needs some time to soften.

+1.5 hours
Medium bodied. A touch earthy on the palate. The alcohol is well-integrated at this point. Very good sipping port. The tannins have softened a bit and I suspect they will continue to do so with more air and time, but given the late hour, I may not get the chance to sample further tonight. At this point, I would buy a case of this for short to medium-term drinking.

Decanted the bottle back into the bottle to put it in the cellar and prevent it from evolving too fast before I have a chance to try it again.

+3 hours
Stayed up a bit later than intended… Not much has changed except the level in the bottle. It is drinking very nicely – seems to be very smooth, but still mid-bodied (not overly complex but definitely a better LBV of the range of 2000 LBVs that I have sampled).

+19 hours
A quick sip taken out of the cellar-cool bottle results in some wet straw (raw, green vegetal) flavours that are not entirely pleasant. If this is an indication of where this port has gone, I do not like the evolution. Proper taste will occur in a few hours once the kids are in bed and I have a chance to give it a fair taste and evaluation.

+23 hours
2 proper glasses – both seem much better than a few hours ago. It seems that bringing the port upstairs and allowing it to gain a few degrees Celcius helps it out immensely. No more vegetation/straw on the palate, which pleases me immensely. Just for scientific comparison’s sake, I took a small sip directly out of the bottle in the cellar as I brought up the latest glass and noticed that it didn’t have the full straw effect I sampled earlier, but it was there, lurking on the mid-palate, albeit weaker than previously noted. 10-20 minutes later, the glass showed none of this, so it appears that the serving temperature really can make a significant difference.

At this point, the acidity is nice and balanced. Tannins are present and giving the wine structure but still not overpowering, of which I am glad. A very solid LBV, a great effort by this relatively new producer.

+3 days
While there is not much to report in the way of evolution from the 19-23 hour mark, I have now drained to bottle and while I was hoping to leave at least a glass remaining to try after 6-8 days, I will be unable to do this. This is an excellent Port, and for an unfiltered LBV, my inexperienced palate believes that it can interpret at least a decade of gentle aging that may bring this LBV into the realm of a very good aged LBV. I will be seeking out a few more bottles of this to try and hide at the back of the cellar and break out in 5, 7, 9 and 11 years from now.


Todd