1995 Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port

Jay Hack · Post by **Jay Hack** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:03 pm

1995 Fonseca Porto Guimaraens - Portugal, Douro, Porto (11/22/2007)
According to the label on the bottle, when they decide after two years in cask that the grapes will generate an above average Port, they declare a vintage and bottle it as Fonseca VP. When the wine is not up to that standard, they bottle it as Guimaraens. A bit of unintended honesty! This is average to below average for a top level bottler, which makes it overall a good port but far from a WOW. It has many very good characteristics, including classic port fruit flavor (you would not confuse it with anything else) and secondary vanilla and a bit of roasted nuts. However, there is a very annoying bitterness on the rear palate that leaves an annoying aftertaste. After drinking it, you are left with the aftertaste rather than that warm fuzzy glow you get from drinking a full bodied, well-balanced VP. I have a case of Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1995 coming that I won at auction, and I hope it is better than this. This was not my bottle, so I can't speak to provenance or storage. It was double decanted to remove sediment at about 1:00 and drunk at about 5:30 after Thanksgiving dinner. If 84 is the high end of just "good" then that's where this belongs. I've had a lot of ports that were much better than this. (84 pts.)

Todd Pettinger · Post by **Todd Pettinger** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:24 pm

Jay, I'm just wondering if this one might be a tad too young to be going hard on now?

I have not tried any of the Guimaraens as of yet. I have 11 (missing one bottle from a full case) of the 2001 Guimaraens (my wedding year) but I likely will not be cracking until at least my 15th Anniversary. -ok- maybe one on the 10th... just to see how it is doing!

I'm expecting it to be very closed at 10 years though and will likely need at least 12-16 hours of decanting.

Is there any of your bottle left? If so, you may want to try it with some air time... just to see if anything changes (the bitterness??) Here's hoping!

Todd

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:29 pm

Jay, wonder if you had an off bottle or something else. I've had this before and scored it much higher than you. Of course, all palates are different so....

As for the Vargellas, based on my experience they tend to show a little "hotter" than other VP's. Its not a flaw (which some people have mentioned), just part of the terrior of the Vargellas SQVP's.