For The Love Of Port

As part of a day long celebration on February 18, 2011 to mark having survived 25 years as a professional accountant in Canada, this port was tasted at 9:20, both in the morning and evening. For the record, I am not accustomed to having any kind of alcohol before noon - contrary to popular belief. There are a few bottles of this left in the BC liquor inventory for around $49, if you can find them.

This is the second time in my life I have been privileged to taste a VP, so I hope you will forgive the neophytic nature of the evaluation (the other occasion was in 1991, a Burmester 1970). I found this wine's bouquet absolutely delightful. The initial impression was raspberry, then blackberry, and with further aeration, tar, licorice, potpourri and a hint of eucalyptus. It seemed like a nice combination of Pauillac and Graves on the nose. Deep purplish red color, almost opaque, highly extracted. It looked oddly enough like Chateau Leoville-Las Cases. Very similar notes on the flavour, really coating the mouth, very long finish, and a nice feeling of the 20.5% alcohol being well integrated with the fruit. This is a great young wine, with even greater potential - I wish I could live long enough to taste it at full maturity in 20 or more years from now.

It was served again later in the evening as part of a rather sumptuous meal which included the 2007 Domaine La Roquete Chateauneuf du Pape (excellent), 2005 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Riesing Herrenweg de Turckheim Lot 144 (excellent with mushrooms in sauce), 1988 Chateau Margaux (wonderful after an hour of aeration), and Remy Martin XO Cognac (excellent too, the embodiment of fire and velvet). The concensus was the Fonseca and Margaux were both wines of quite different character but of the very highest quality and equally enjoyable. One guest liked the port best of all. It is a nice exercise to compare a vintage port from a top producer with a top table wine estate, just to show how good vintage port really is. I hope to repeat this with a great vintage madeira someday soon.

For the record, there was no alcohol consumption the following day, in spite of not being hung over. Perhaps there is something to be said for sticking with the good stuff.

Ray

On further consideration, and if for no other reason than to correct my typo in the original heading (hopefully), let me add the flavour seemed to include a hint of chocolate. Calling it sumptuous and decadent would not be unfair.

For subscribers who have read Roy's comments on this wine, let me say that the tasting/drinking notes are entirely my own, and I wholeheartedly concur with his overall score, based on my assumptions as to how he came up with it. I would also add, speaking again only for myself, that this is one of the very few second tier/second label offerings I have had from a top class wine maker which may be honestly described as outstanding in their own right. The other examples that come to mind are Henriques & Henriques 10 year old boal, Broadbent 10 year old malmsey, and the 2003 Carraudes de Lafite, the second wine of Ch. Lafite Rothschild. All 3 fortified wines have a clear price advantage over the Lafite deuxieme vin, which like the grand vin is subject to market speculation and now costs $200 a bottle or more. I believe this Fonseca "second label vintage port" offers sensational value for money and has motivated me to try out everything they offer, starting with its LBV.

PPS: the vintage port was served with double chocolate cake - a divine combination.

Try the 2005 Quinta da Roeda SQVP, it's blow your mind good!

If I can find it, I'll give it a whirl!