Fonseca Vintage Port 2017

Fonseca lies firmly in the top league of port houses, regularly scoring very highly with critics and much loved by consumers. From its first vintage release in 1840, they have consistently produced great ports.

• This Fonseca vintage port 2017 opens with a burst of dark, woodland fruit, dense and succulent
• Blended with fresher, more vibrant red berry aromas
• A slatey minerality holds this exuberant fruitiness in check
• The nose is still reserved and discreetly aromatic, revealing leafy, balsamic scents and cedary notes of sawn wood
• The first impression on the palate is of the dense dark berry fruit, which then explodes on the mid-palate
• Surges into the long finish
• The texture is round and velvety but the taut
• Sinewy tannins and a strand of crisp acidity provide firmness and structure
• The layered, complex fruit typical of Fonseca holds sway over this weighty, powerful wine

In spite of a cold and dry start to the year. The first buds appeared earlier than usual, around 10th March. Spring remained unusually dry throughout, with only about 7mm of rain falling in Pinhao in the usually wet month of April. These conditions accelerated vine growth, bringing on an early flowering at the beginning of May.

These were the earliest picking dates in a generation. The thick-skinned grapes yield very dense musts, with impressive depth of colour. Although the volume of production was low overall, a high proportion of the wines made were of exceptional quality, their promise was apparent from an early stage.