NV Quinta de Brunheda 40 Year Old Tawny Port -- 2019

[Glenn E.]

Medium light tawny color - it looks more like an aged White Port than a 40-year old Tawny Port. Light caramel, anise, caramelized tropical fruits, and some dates on the nose. The palate has toasty honey and light(er) fruit flavors, plus some caramelized fruits, but while they smell tropical they don't taste tropical. Light in texture but full in flavor which reminded some of the DR L70. Really a wonderful Port.

95 points.

This bottle was purchased on the 2019 Port Harvest Tour 2, and as we're coming to discover it seems important to note both when and where a Bruheda 40 Year Old was purchased. These are not commercial products and have hand-printed labels. The first bottles purchased on a PHT had a now infamous error - they read "simples not for sale" instead of samples. Those bottles were dark and powerful Ports - everything you expect from a "40 Year Old" that in reality is closer to 60 or 70. A later set of bottles had a different, very minor error - their labels read "+40 Years Old". Those bottles seem to have a more modern 40YO style akin to 40YOs from DR or S. Leonardo. I.e. those feel closer to actually 40 years old than 60 or 70, and have a smoother and easier to drink feel to them.

This bottle's label simply said "Amostra de casco" - cask sample - and "40 Years Old" so they've got the labels down. But the blend clearly contains some - arguably a lot of - White Port. And while it is undoubtably at least 40 years old, it's a very different Port than what one expects from something labeled as a 40 Year Old Tawny Port. Delicious and wonderful, but very different. Somehow perfectly representative of Pedro and everyone else at Brunheda.