1978 Fonseca Guimaraens

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14880
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

1978 Fonseca Guimaraens

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Drunk at the SQVP Night Tasting.

From a bottle clearly labelled as Fonseca Guimaraens 1978, but sealed with a cork branded Fonseca Cruzeiro 1978 - could this have been a single quinta port?

Mature in colour with a brick rim; quite light at 40% opaque. Pleasant on the nose, mixing spicy sandalwood with sweet fat plum. Soft and round entry, quite light but delicately sweet and flavoursome. Lots of plum on the palate supported by gentle coffee tannins that give a lovely balance and feel to the palate. A delicious coffee finish, accompanied by soft candied fruit that lingers a while. Very nice, drinking beautifully. My port of the night. Served blind, this was guessed to be Vargellas 1967. 91/100. Drunk 07-Sep-17. Decanted 9 hours.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Re: 1978 Fonseca Guimaraens

Post by Andy Velebil »

That discussion came up with Adrian during the FG tasting some years ago. Someone who also attended please refresh our memories.


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LGTrotter
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
Posts: 3707
Joined: 17:45 Fri 19 Oct 2012
Location: Somerset, UK

Re: 1978 Fonseca Guimaraens

Post by LGTrotter »

No backstory of previous tastings but this is a port which I remember with much fondness as one of my first tentative steps in the way of port nearly 30 years ago. Lovely to hear it is still humming along.
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3028
Joined: 22:16 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA
Contact:

Re: 1978 Fonseca Guimaraens

Post by Andy Velebil »

I've found a discussion on the corks branded with the Quintas do Cruzeiro name. Check out here.
https://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopf ... iro#p81045

Adrian said it was not a SQVP at the big FG tasting in London in 2011. And according to the discussion Adrian had his lap top and looked it up.

(Speculation: Since they only bought that Quinta in the 1970's, a short time earlier, perhaps they intended to bottle a SQVP, ordered the corks, then decided against it. Instead using the corks already on hand for the FG bottlings. Remember this was still a time when the country was still recovering from all the financial and political drama of that decade.)
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14880
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: 1978 Fonseca Guimaraens

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Thanks Andy, useful background information.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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