1986 Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:22 am

Picked up two bottles of his from my local Sainsbury's whilst I was in there to buy Hollandaise sauce for eggs Benedict (can't be bothered to make the sauce for that). This was on for £13.33 per bottle in presentation cases with a cheap and nasty funnel each, which have already proven useful so I will diss them no more. Nearly forgot the Hollandaise in the excitement. Sunday night I couldn't sleep and these had been standing for two days so one of them got opened, hence these notes are without much decanting time (nearly 30 seconds to be more precise). This is a Single Quinta VP as 1986 was not declared by Fonseca.

Colour is a deep pinky red with a pink rim. Good viscosity with nice legs. Nose of cough mixture and cherries with a hint of black pepper. In the mout there is Kirsch cherries and cointreau with medium roast coffee and the balck pepper much more noticeable. Lady K said "prunes" and she was right. Very nice and warming when you need a night-cap, both of us liked it. Exceptional for the price.

Deteriorated in the decanter but that was my fault for leaving it for two days - there was a reason. I now know to re-bottle a lot more quickly.

Ronald Wortel · Post by **Ronald Wortel** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:37 am

8)
Nice TN KillerB, glad you liked it!

Nikolaj Winther · Post by **Nikolaj Winther** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:51 am

You can't beat Fonseca.

I've got a few bottles of the 84 guimaraens lying there. Even in those off-years, you get good QPR. But 14£, that's cheap. I bought mine for around 20.

alec · Post by **alec** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 3:00 pm

What the hell kinda grocery stores do you guys have over there? We're lucky to find anything in ours that doesn't have mold on it. (Fruit, vegetables, cheese and even cans.) And even if they did sell wine they sure wouldn't have port.

I love this city (NYC) but it's stories like that which make me think I wouldn't mind Europe.

--A

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 2:55 am

Alec,

I was in NY a couple of weeks ago and couldn't find any proper supermarkets but found loads of wine shops. Some of them were seriously scratty but still had bottles of Petrus lurking in the shelves - astonishing. I understand that NY State doesn't allow wine to be sold in supermarkets anyway or something like that.

I went over to see if they had any more yesterday and picked up another four, this time with a 5% discount as I had six bottles altogether, so now the price was £12.66. It seemed a shame not to buy them.

Alex

Tom Archer · Post by **Tom Archer** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:12 am

Your description is not unlike my recent experience of Malvedos from the same year (except that we finished the bottle within three hours of opening it..)

Probably a year that's now at it's peak.

Warre's Cavadinha '86 is also available at a very reasonable price - anyone tried it recently?

Steven Kooij · Post by **Steven Kooij** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:48 am

Tom, I tried the Cavadinha a few weeks ago, and found it to be quite mature (good), but hot and too alcoholic as well(bad! We did not finish the bottle). If this was a representative bottle, I would not recommend it.

Tom Archer · Post by **Tom Archer** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:59 am

... interesting comment.

There is a large parcel coming to auction in two weeks time with a very low guide price (it's being sold in lots of 24 bottles too, which is unusual for VP)

Maybe one to miss!

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:55 am

I'm killing time at the airport catching up with Port Forum traffic. Boy am I glad I decided to do this as I nearly bought a bottle of the Cavadinha 86 from the duty free shop.

I'm now very glad I left it on the shelf.

The other wine they had was the Hutcheson 87. I've never tried any wine from Hutcheson but I have had some very pleasant 87's. Anyone know this wine?

Alex

simon Lisle · Post by **simon Lisle** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:39 pm

I've had this port tonight nothing much to add apart from the deep colour belies the quite light body not great but good value I paid £20 pounds a while back short on start and finish but well balanced

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:38 pm

Had another bottle on Christmas day to go with the cheese and family (the cheese was delicious, the family a bit old and crusty). Decanted just before going out for Christmas dinner so had about three hours. Didn't take any notes but it did disappear at an alarming rate. There's a Welsh cheese with a French name that I get from my local deli that some of you have had and it went beautifully. Colton Bassett Stilton also went well.

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:13 pm

alec4444 wrote:What the hell kinda grocery stores do you guys have over there? We're lucky to find anything in ours that doesn't have mold on it. (Fruit, vegetables, cheese and even cans.) And even if they did sell wine they sure wouldn't have port.

I love this city (NYC) but it's stories like that which make me think I wouldn't mind Europe.

--A

:twisted: I agree, All I ever find in my grocery stores here in southern California is cheap "box" port, as I call it. Once in a while you get the usuall Bin 27, or something inexpensive like that. NEVER anything good like a SQV :!:

I need to move,