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Fonseca 1966 tasted on 1st September 2007 in St. Helens. Tasted that evening were Fonseca 1920, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1992, and 2000. Also see the review describing the evening as a whole.

From the cellar of Derek T., for the light cost price of £115.

A UK bottling by Justerini & Brooks Ltd. Purchased with 2 others in March 2007 from Seckford Wines.

Intact plastic capsule. Level is 1cm into the neck and 3 cm below the base of the cork.

Decanted at 08:00 on 1 Sep 07. Cork broke and a few bits dropped into the bottle. What a fabulous smell when decanting this wine. Great dark colour for a wine of this age and less crust than some half it's age decanted earlier in the morning.

Slightly less opaque than the 1970. Nose somewhat closed, but predominamtly fruit rather than spice. Initial attack thinner than 1963, then gooier, sweeter. Still plenty of tannins. DRT: needs more time. UncleTomScore = 10-10.

This was the best of the evening - full, fruity, gorgeous mouthful - probably the best port I've ever drunk (and that tops at least one from 1931, thanks to Julian's generosity). Uncle Tom, I am deeply indebted to you for opening your cellar to me, and am sad that I couldn't meet you in person.

I'll add further tasting notes later, but I'd like to have a go at the Uncle Tom scoring system. Once, I found a thread explaining how to do it, but I can't now. Can someone send me in the right direction?

Here you go

Can't disagree about this pulling off an absolute blinder yet again. Sweet, great backbone of tannin, masses of plums, spice and even a tang of orange. My overall favourite for its ability to be around until many of us will be shuffling off this portal coil.

This bottle was one of 3 given to me on my birthday this year by the best portaholics girfriend in history

A stunning bottle which re-enforced this as being one of my all time favourite VP's.

The first thing that hit me was the tannin. Remarkable for a 40+ year old wine. A beutiful colour and significantly more opaque than the 63. A closed nose was later revealed as a problem of being outdoors. Inside, a complex nose which did not quite compete with the 63. A huge chewy dark cherry truffle taste. WOW! what a wine

Hands down winner for me of Wine of the Night. Decades of pleasure to go in this one, despite already being 41 years old.

Derek

Wanting to give this wine a fair hearing (ex miniature bottle - courtesy of Derek!) I have saved it for a window of low stress... - biz is getting a little frenetic right now...!

Maybe the time delay is an issue here, but it's coming over rather light, and not very Fonseca, although it seems to have some age..

I'm hoping that Derek will now jump in and confess that this was not the real McCoy...

Tom

Tom,

Just to show how many differing opinions there are out there, I'm with you. The rest thought this was stellar. I thought it was good. If I had any criticism of a very nice Port, it was that the mouthfeel wasn't quite there. I knew I was sailing against the wind, at that table, so I just kept that opinion to myself, when it wasn't reciprocated. But it wasn't a patch on the 63,77, or IMHO the 85. But it takes allsorts.

Must keep things in perspective though. Bloody good Port.

Alan

I'm not sure that TN's of the same 41 year old wine that were taken 9 days apart are particularly valid.

I'll stick by my assertion that this was a stellar bottle of a stellar wine on the night - wat happened to it by the time Tom opened his sample 9 days later is anyone's guess

Derek

Ah, the F66! Deep red brown, looks the business - really thick and gooey, tannins, massive structure, and then lots of spiciness. The things that stuck with me were the big mouthfeel - a wonderful sensation just having it in my mouth - and the spiciness. Absolutely marvellous. On the Uncle Tom scoring system, it definitely gets a 10 now, but I feel those tannins mean it will get better. I don't suppose 11s are allowed, so I guess it's a 10-10.

Just out of interest, apart from Derek, has anyone else out there got any bottles?