For The Love Of Port

A newbie here; I just opened a bottle of Fonseca 20 year Tawny, but I noticed when pouring glass, that it's slightly cloudy compared to the other tawnies I've tried...a murky reddish-amber. I've only had a few 10 years a 1997 Colheita so far and never noticed such a property before. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? Just to give full disclosure, it did pick this up on eBay from what seemed to be a reputable seller. It tastes "fine" in my opinion, for whatever that's worth...my palate definitely needs more training & experience. :?

Rob,

Welcome to FTLOP. Can I ask if the bottle was chilled before drinking? This sometimes causes a cloudy appearance but, given that you sourced it from Ebay, it ,more likely that the bottle was heat damaged.

Derek

You might check the botteling date, if it was bottled a number of years ago (5, 10?) it might be starting to throw a very fine sediment.

Jay

There are numerous possible causes of this condition. However that does not mean the taste will be off. I just had a Colheita that was quite cloudy (1906 Brunheda) and appeared to look like iced tea. It was still great though, not the clearest appearance. I don't drink appearance and although important, especially so in a vintage Port, I would not be too concerned about cloudiness. Here in around Seattle we live that way.

Rob, open it up and take a sip and then see what you think. Heat, cold, poor use of stabilizers, filtration issue, a problem with the fining agent and many more issues could cause this. I wouldn't worry before taking a sip.