2017 Fonseca

[winesecretary]

From half bottle. Popped and decanted and poured and then considered over some hours.

95% opaque, red rim

Nose of esteva and Concord grape. No hint of heat, still pure fruit.

Really ripe melange of mainly black fruit - mainly black cherry and a little blackcurrant on the front palate. No Black Forest Gateau, it’s summer-pudding spectrum port. A nice Parma violet florality developing after a while.

Fine grained drying tannins that grow gently more prominent on the finish then start to fade away into licorice after half a minute or so.

After the discussion yesterday about young vintage port being a little bit a betrayal of the point of the thing, with which I do broadly agree, I thought I might nevertheless fancy a bit of the good stuff with some cheese tonight and this caught my eye. I have to say that even to my palate this is very good port right now even if it is a travesty of what it will be in 30 years.

[Alex Bridgeman]

I love a young, fruity and delicious Vintage Port - this sounds just in my sweet spot. I know it will turn into something glorious in 50-75 years, but it's nearly irresistible as it is.

Great note, by the way!

[winesecretary]

@ Alex - thank you. It's much easier for amateurs like me to write a decent note when we are drinking one port over time, on our own, in silence, with a good book to hand, than to make notes on twenty ports in a room with others - happy-making though the latter can be!