1983 Fonseca VP Port

[John Danza]

This wine was served with dessert at this month's dinner of the Chicago branch of the IWFS., so I don't know how it was prepped for service.

The color of the wine was brick red / brownish, very different than I would have expected. The flavor was primarily alcohol hot. Frankly, it wasn't a very pleasant wine, and was completely different than I expected. Were these bottles just handled poorly, or does the wine have a lot of bottle variation?

[Lamont Huxley]

I've only had this VP once and it was well over a decade ago, but it was a similarly poor showing.

[Andy Velebil]

That sounds like a pretty typical bottle. 1980 and 1983 are both below par for Fonseca before they got back on track with the '85

[Gary Richardson]

I had a very nice bottle of this in November 2009. Initially, the bottle appeared to be a little "off", but after a 6 hour decant it came together nicely. It seems there may be a fair amount of bottle variation.

-- Gary

[Roy Hersh]

I have had a LOT of the 1983 Fonseca over the years as all of my two cases came in at $19 per bottle back in their youth. It has never been a gangbuster VP, but it is far better than the 1980 Fonseca that Andy mentions. Probably in the 89-91 point range, imo. It is good and tastes just fine. Not sure what the quibble is. It is certainly no 1985 Fonseca but decanted properly, it is drinking nicely today.

[John Danza]

I have had a LOT of the 1983 Fonseca over the years as all of my two cases came in at $19 per bottle back in their youth. It has never been a gangbuster VP, but it is far better than the 1980 Fonseca that Andy mentions. Probably in the 89-91 point range, imo. It is good and tastes just fine. Not sure what the quibble is. It is certainly no 1985 Fonseca but decanted properly, it is drinking nicely today.

It sounds like the issue I had with the wine we had at the dinner was improper handling prior to serving. I don't think the port was properly decanted ahead of time to give it time to air out and adjust. Far too many people think that these wines can just be decanted and served. They don't realize that ports improve from hours of decanting in advance. As an example, the guy that sat next to me is drinking port in his cellar from "the 1950s". He said he pops and pours immediately, because he's afraid that they'll go dead quickly once opened. He was quite disbelieving when I told him they would benefit by being opened a couple of hours ahead of time.

[Roy Hersh]

John,

Tell him to read this:

http://www.fortheloveofport.com/port-ba ... rsh-method

[John Danza]

John,

Tell him to read this:

http://www.fortheloveofport.com/port-ba ... rsh-method

That's a great article Roy. I'll point it at a number of friends that like port.

I just realized that I have a couple of bottles of 1983 Fonseca in my own cellar. I'll open one very soon, giving it proper decanting time to see how it performs.