Fonseca 2017 VP [stream of consciousness?]

[Scheiny S]

I was just given a 750 of Fonseca 2017! [My birthday was last week.] I want to open it on Saturday!
How long should I decant it?? It's room temperature right now, should I refrigerate it overnight? I've only had a few VPs and it's been a couple years, now.

Nice gift. I would open it, pour into a decanter, make sure no sediment in bottle, then rebottle and leave corked in the cellar or other cool place for at 24-36 hours.

We just opened it and poured a taste.
Raspberry color on the rim. Lots of vanilla on the nose, and red berry. The dominant flavor was strawberries and cream. I also got orange. My partner says raspberry or black currant, but I don't taste it. [I think he's conflating it with bin 27 because I've made sure he's familiar with that.]
We tried it in a vertical with bin 27, which he likes a lot, and he was surprised by how much better the VP is. But when I described the 2011 as "bin 27 all grown up" he described the 2017 as, instead, "a different animal".

We're going to pour half a glass to leave out overnight and compare to a glass poured in the morning.

[Andy Velebil]

Looking forward to hear how it changes.

[Scheiny S]

We're in a hotel room and I wasn't told beforehand to know to bring a decanter and cheese cloth. I'll do that at home. We left a glass out overnight and I put the cork back in the bottle just to keep things out of it. Twelve hours later, we tried the glass that we'd poured last night and a glass poured now. They're both different from when the bottle was just opened and are distinct from each other.

The glass left overnight still smelled like red berries but not vanilla. The vanilla creaminess is still in the flavor. The strawberry isn't prominent anymore and the orange is gone, but it still tastes like red berries [but not red fruits like apples]. [I'm happy about that because I don't like strawberry much.] The acidity is very bright, not overwhelming but a little out of balance. It's got a nice medium sweetness that presents mid- palette, then the acidity follows. It's not very heavy, a nice medium mouthfeel. The tannin surprises me, it seems very well balanced, I expected it to be more prevalent. The finish lasts a long time but is subtle. It's overwhelmed at first by acidity, then fades into darker fruit.

The glass we poured from the bottle just now has lost the initial vanilla and also strawberry, but gained an unpleasant astringency in the scent. The fruit is more prominent than when it was first opened, but presents some stone fruit and darker flavors. The orange is gone. It's very acidic. We tasted it next to a glass of bin 27 and the latter was more drinkable, though far less nuanced. "This hasn't decided what it wants to be."
*We tasted this glass two hours later and it had improved significantly.

This experiment has been really neat to show me how oxidation changes, mellows, and improves a VP. I look forward to decanting into another bottle and drinking this over the next week.

[Andy Velebil]

It’s super fun to see how much a young VP can change. As you noticed they go through phases, sometime seemingly taking a step backwards before running forward again.

[Scheiny S]

We poured a taste this morning. It's mellowed significantly and is much better balanced and integrated. Still very fruity but my first comment was jammy, which I don't think had applied before. The body hadn't gotten heavier, but it felt stickier, maybe that's tannin?

I assume had we decanted Friday night rather than just opening the bottle that this timeline would have moved forward by hours. The bottle is still more than half full, I may decant half of what's left and leave the rest in the bottle. If that's a bad idea and I should decant all of it, let me know. I'm winging it so guidance is appreciated.

It’s super fun to see how much a young VP can change. As you noticed they go through phases, sometime seemingly taking a step backwards before running forward again.

Yeah! It's fascinating. I'm really surprised by the "step backwards". I've never heard anyone mention that before
but I also don't really know people who decant wine at all. I've already experienced that the glass makes a difference and I prefer to be a stickler about that; I'm glad that we got to try this to show how much decanting matters so that when I'm insistent on it with LBVs I don't just sound fussy.

[Andy Velebil]

It isn’t talked about much because few people are tasting a super young VP over multiple days. And it doesn’t happen to all young VP’s. But it is fun and educational to experience.