1963 | Fonseca | Vintage Port

Rich full ruby center, tawny highlights. A wine in total harmony on the bouquet. The nose overflows with aromas of cured leather, warm marmalade, cinnamon, scented rosewood. Pungent, fat, rounded; oodles of volume on the nose. Then wonderful pear drop lift on the finish.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: This example was bottled in Porto and remained in the house’s bin until this tasting. The 1963 Vintage Port has a dark russet color. The nose is beautifully defined, perhaps this particular bottle less exuberant than other that I have encountered. It offers walnut, small cherries, juniper berries and a touch of spirit that expands in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with wonderful balance and fine tannins. It has tremendous weight matched by nigh perfect acidity. It is very harmonious, almost honeyed towards the finish with hazelnut and cloves infusing the decayed fruit and hints of menthol on the spicy aftertaste. This is a sublime Fonseca that will last another two or three decades with ease. Drink now-2030+.

• Wine Spectator: A grand slam. Deep ruby with a slightly red edge, intense black cherry and raspberry nose, full-bodied, with masses of fruit, full tannins and an extremely long finish. This can age indefinitely.

Producer Information

Fonseca is a well-regarded Port house producing quality wines and known for the lush, exotic style of its vintage Port releases. Encompassing three quintas (vineyard estates) across the Douro region, the house makes a variety of Port styles, ranging from the reserve ruby, Bin 27, to white ports and Tawny ports of various ages. Fonseca's vintage releases are the most notable, however, and several vintages have attracted 100-point ratings and glowing reviews from major wine critics. In years deemed not good enough for the top Port, a earlier-drinking label called Guimaraens Vintage is released. The three quintas, or vineyard estates, are located in the Cima Corgo (above the Corgo River and its confluence with the Douro), around the town of Pinhão. The Cima Corgo is the more central region, located between the Baixa (lower) Corgo to the west, closer to Porto, and the Douro Superior, which stretches to the border with Spain. Two of the quintas, Quinta do Cruzeiro and Quinta de Santo António, are in the Pinhão Valley and have supplied Fonseca with grapes for over a century. The former is associated with providing tannic backbone and dense black fruit to the vintage port, while the latter estate provides aromatic complexity. Quinta do Panascal in the Távora Valley is a newer purchase (it was acquired in 1978) and gives rich, jammy flavors and texture. It is also the source for the Single Quinta Vintage wine which bears its name. Fonseca was founded in 1815 by the Fonseca and Monteiro families, with the Guimaraens family taking over during the second half of the 19th Century. In 1949, the company was sold to Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman which had loaned Fonseca considerable sums since the outbreak of war in 1939. Despite this ownership, Fonseca is run as a separate entity and various members of the Guimaraens family have held key positions ever since.

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