1963 Fonseca

[Alex Bridgeman]

Bottle 12621, which appeared English bottle but with a generic blue metal capsule and a cork which had no visible branding. The bottle appearance was estimated to be consistent with the 1945-1963 vintages and from the flavour profile I judged this to be Fonseca 1963. This started off a very pale brown but rapidly put on colour in the decanter to turn a mid chestnut brown, 30% opaque. A lovely sweet redcurrant and leather nose of mature port, delicious and well developed. On the palate this has a thick, slightly syrupy texture; the flavour is sweet fruit with lots of meat juices and sweet, concentrated redcurrant jelly. Big and powerful but fully mature and beautifully balanced. Wonderful lingering aftertaste of rose hip syrup. A great port which could easily turn out to have been F55 or F48. 94/100. June 2015.