For The Love Of Port

Fonseca Vintage Port [1970]
*tasted blind knowing only that the Ports being served were from Fonseca or Taylor. between 7-8 hrs decant time.

Possessing an elegant nose, this floral VP could only be the legendary Fonseca that I had heard of, but had never tried a Vintage from the house. A beautiful colour, light garnet with hints of rose and orange in the meniscus. A touch of glycerine clung to the glass as the port was swirled, this was a beautiful wine, presenting well-balanced fruit, muted sweetness and a smooth flavour profile. In the very end, some butterscotch and caramel showed up but the majority was soft, elegant fruit. A complexity and feminine style was unlike almost any other Vintage Port I had tried previously, leading to a hypothesis of Fonseca. A fiery back-end showed a bit too much spirit and general consensus around the table was that this particular port could have benefited from a few more hours of decanting time.

I guessed at 1970 Fonseca, simply due to the flavours, colour and obvious age of the Port, but this was more due to wild speculation than any pre-determined knowledge.

My score: 94 pts
(This would have been +1 or +2 without the heat on the finish.)

Lucky guess.

Excellent note.

Decant longer.

How many points did you take off for the spirit? :help:

When you finally make it down here ... even if that is 2010 ... remind me to open one of these for you Todd. I'd be happy to share one with you to see if we can't improve on that 94 point experience with the F70.

Roy Hersh wrote:When you finally make it down here ... even if that is 2010 ... remind me to open one of these for you Todd. I'd be happy to share one with you to see if we can't improve on that 94 point experience with the F70.

This is an offer I will definitely be taking you up on Roy! :)
2010 is looking good for the 2nd Annual Port Gala. As I have said, I would be an attendee at the Inaugural but not for a mother-in-law's wedding that weekend.

Did you at least try asking your MIL to change her wedding date? It is not like it is her first time doing this.

Roy Hersh wrote:Did you at least try asking your MIL to change her wedding date? It is not like it is her first time doing this.

heh heh... She sent me an invitation and has been bugging me to RSVP in recent weeks (like she didn't already KNOW I was coming) and when I responded to her that I would not be attending (joking of course - she should know me by now) she took it literally and began to cry. Felt like an arse... She must be suffering from pre-wedding stress
My wife still hasn't heard the end of it...

This (these) was tasted blind on Feb 27, 2009 in a comparative tasting of 1970 Fonseca and 1970 Taylor – 3 different bottlings of each. The notes have been recorded with identification – but were made without knowledge of both the producer and bottler. For completeness the order of serving is also identified (labelled A through F). Each bottle was shared between 11 voting attendees. The notes are mine alone.
My conclusion overall. I preferred the Fonseca’s (as usual). However, the group had the Saccone & Speed bottling of Taylor easily top – but the 3 Fonseca’s took the next 3 spots. In my experience this is not unusual – the 70 Taylor has always seemed to me to have a Jekyll & Hyde character, with extreme variations between bottlings.


Fonseca 1970 – bottled Mentzendorff (UK) (Wine A)

Still a medium-dark ruby (but not the darkest) with some fading in colour at the edge (but not browning). Definite ‘heavy blossoms/flowers’ on the nose particularly violets – and possibly lavender, so I assumed this was a Taylor (wrong!).
Surprisingly dry on the palate but still dominant fruit, although I thought the finish a little ‘pruny’. Thought this might have come from storage rather than intrinsic.
I rated it 5th (out of 6 served), but the group as a whole rated it 3rd. Nobody had this top.

Fonseca 1970 – bottled Berry Bros & Rudd (UK) (Wine C)

The darkest in colour – medium-dark ruby. The edge was hardly showing age at all – a little lighter but still the same underlying colour.
The nose was a deep plum wrapped in chocolate. A monster (and I correctly guessed Fonseca).
On the palate, huge fruit, then a whiff of alcohol which evolved into the characteristic ‘grip’ showing some tannins (but soft) and a very long finish – longest of all the wines tasted. Still much life ahead.
I rated this #1 (of 6). The group rated it 2nd (the tannins bothered a couple of people). However, I was the only attendee to rate this top.

Fonseca 1970 – bottled Fonseca (Guimaraens) (Wine D)

The lightest in colour of the 3 Fonsecas – but still firmly ruby. In contrast to Wine A above, the rim was still the same as the body (albeit a paler version) but certainly not as big a contrast as with Wine A.
Intensely sweet and concentrated nose with black fruit ‘in syrup’. Again, this screamed Fonseca to me.
The great fruit continued on the palate, with the wine being ‘almost’ perfectly balanced – more acidity that Wine C but less tannin. In the finish I got a slight metallic note and this cut the finish a bit shorter than Wine C
I rated this 3rd (of 6). The group rated it 4th. Again, two people had this top.

The notes on the other 3 wines (70 Taylor) are posted under that wine.

Alan,

Thanks for the notes. Any comments on the quality of the corks? From what Uncle tom has mentioned corks have been provided to bottlers.

Aaron

I didn't remove the corks - just attended this tasting. However, I was told that EVERY cork in the tasting crumbled - none at all were salvaged to check what was imprinted on them (I asked, ahead of the event, for this to be done, but nothing was legible).
That does surprise me a bit - my guess is clumsy opening, as I have around 80% success rate in general with older wines. But I use a double helix (with hollow centres). There is a trick to it.

Alan,

Who knows, I pride myself on my prowess of removing old corks. However on the 20th of Feb. I opened 15 distinct bottles of 1963 vintage Ports and only managed four to be removed in one piece. The Ah-so available had prongs that were weak, and worse yet, the cork screw on hand was the 2-stage type with a very short worm. The large screw-pull device was worse than both of these others and I wanted to scream ... get me a real damn cork screw, (in a cellar that was larger than any I had every witnessed). Alas, many expensive bottles and very cheap opening devices.

Thank you for the splendid impressions from your fine tasting!



Aaron,

Yes, the shipper oft sent the corks and occasionally labels through their agents to the bottling firms in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. This helped immensely , especially in the cold and damp cellars of the UK.