1977 Fonseca

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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KillerB
Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
Posts: 2425
Joined: 22:09 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Sky Blue City, England

Re: 1977 Fonseca

Post by KillerB »

Another star that failed to shine as brightly. This was very pale for a 1977. It still had a bit of fruit but body was down. The cork had actually pushed out enough to break the seal, which added to a stewed fruit taste suggests this was slightly cooked. Still nice though.
Port is basically a red drink
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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

Re: 1977 Fonseca

Post by RonnieRoots »

Third flight, served alongside Guimaraens 1976.

Too light for F77. The nose is mostly muted, some nice spiciness coming through. Weak and watery to taste. The flavours are nice, but simple. As KillerB points out, indeed a bit stewed, suggesting some heat damage. Not a top bottle, and no match for the 76 Guimaraens. 87 points.

There was a lot of discussion on bottle variation with the F77 on our table. While this certainly wasn't the worst example of F77 I tasted, it looked nothing like the prime examples that I've also had (such as the bottle at the 1977 tasting in 2008). It definitely didn't help that this bottle may have had a bad history, but the fact remains that F77 is a tricky port, and you're never quite sure what you get when you buy a bottle. 76 or 85 seem much safer bets to buy.
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