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1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 22:59 Sat 25 Oct 2008
by uncle tom
Strakers have recently been selling a huge private cellar (much of it Rhone wines), the property of a late departed wine and food buff who lived in what appear to have been stately surroundings. The catalogue informed us that he had been in the habit of buying at release.

As provenance goes, it doesn't get much better..

I picked up from this sale a ten bottle lot of Fonseca '77.

Of the ten bottles, six had excellent levels, although one had a mouse chewed capsule. Three more had BN levels, and one was at mid-shoulder - a dreadful level for a wine of this age.

Believing in 'survival of the fittest' - It was promptly put on death row..

There was no obvious sign of seepage, and my first reaction was to suspect a problem on the bottling line.

On removing the capsule, there was a small stain on the guarantee slip where it passed over the top of the bottle, but no more. However, the cork had a rough, almost furry appearance.

On removing the cork, I found it to have an open spongey texture that could be compressed with ease between thumb and forefinger. Extraction from the bottle had stretched it, and the branding was almost impossible to read.

First sip revealed some bottle stink, and the dregs were quite hot on the palate. After a few hours, the heat had gone, but it was clearly corked - at least I thought it was...

Returning to it this evening, now some 28 hours after decanting, I can detect no sign of the wine being corked at all; indeed it has developed good integration and is drinking very well.

This is all a bit wierd. A few hours ago I was weighing up the 'moral hazard' of cutting my losses and selling the bottles on to some unsuspecting punter at the Cheffins Xmas sale, and now I'm thinking that I want to hang on to them...

Will re-visit tomorrow!

Tom

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 02:27 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by jdaw1
That’s not moral hazard; that’s insider trading.

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 08:46 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by uncle tom
Julian said:
That’s not moral hazard; that’s insider trading.
In Cityspeak, you're probably correct - anyway, I'm keeping them!

I said:
Will re-visit tomorrow!
Unfortunately not now - I seem to have an empty decanter this morning.. :roll:

This is a fully mature wine that will probably plateau for a good few years yet. A better bottle from this stash might score higher, but this one gets 8-8

Tom

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 10:20 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by DRT
uncle tom wrote:I said:
Will re-visit tomorrow!
Unfortunately not now - I seem to have an empty decanter this morning.. :roll:
So do we have to re-name this phenomenon as "doing a Tom"? :lol:

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 13:21 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by uncle tom
So do we have to re-name this phenomenon as "doing a Tom"?
Downing a bottle in one day is to do a Derek, two days is a doing a Tom.. :D

Tom

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 13:28 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by DRT
Ah, I misread the initial post and thought you had done a single-sitting drain of the decanter. You obviously need more practice :lol:

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 13:32 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by DRT
uncle tom wrote: This is a fully mature wine that will probably plateau for a good few years yet. A better bottle from this stash might score higher, but this one gets 8-8

Tom
Tom,

Are you saying that Fonseca 1977 in general is fully mature or just this particular bottle/case? Given the obvious flaws in the condition of this bottle I wouldn't think it would be a good example to use to assess the F77s overall condition? I realise that you have qualified your score but just wanted to understand what you mean by the first part of the above quote.

Derek

Re: 1977 Fonseca vintage port

Posted: 18:18 Sun 26 Oct 2008
by uncle tom
Are you saying that Fonseca 1977 in general is fully mature or just this particular bottle/case?
I last had the F77 at Joost's horizontal in Utrecht in April, when the wine showed a similar degree of maturity to this one. Prior to that, I popped a bottle at home back in Sept '06, at which point I felt it had a little more to offer.

So in terms of maturity, I'd say that this wine has just about arrived, and is now ready for mainstream quaffing.. :P

Tom