1963 Fonseca Vintage Port -- rediscovered
Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 9:54 pm
I don’t have many 63 VPs left anymore. I had purchased most of them in the late 70s from Skinflints in Atlanta, where I would participate with a couple of other Burg fanatics in shipping a palate of old Maison Leroy wines from Burgundy. I usually drank the VPs mostly at special dinners, rarely if it was just my wife and I. Nonetheless, they have dwindled to a handful or so. My last 63 Fonseca note on what I thought was the last bottle of a case was December 2001. But it turns out it wasn’t my last bottle…
I was recently asked to give one of my “canned talks” on wine faults to a tasting dinner group. It’s not my favorite topic, but the dinner featured a vertical of Monfortino. I’ll talk about aliens for a vertical of Monfortino. What makes a wine shitty seems to be of more interest to young enthusiasts than what makes a wine great…or even what makes a wine a wine. When something is shitty, everyone seems to want to know why. When a wine has great aromas or great flavors, nobody seems to want to know how it got there. I’ve likened it to accidents on the highway. Everyone stops and wants to know what happened. What did someone do wrong? No one seems interested in how the 1 million cars the day before went through that same complex interchange without mishap, or about the most awe inspiring engineering ever done on a highway. Half of them were texting their significant others while traveling through. Talking about the chemistry of what makes wines yummy sends most everyone to their iPhone. Anyway, back to this tasting group. They wanted my canned talk on wine faults, aromas, and flavors. But at the same time, the fellow who called me lamented that they didn’t have any Monfortinos before 78. He knew I had some old Italians, so I offered to find a 71 Monfortino to add to their dinner. Since my cellar is only roughly organized, if at all, I began moving cases around where I thought most of my old Barolos were hiding. That’s when I found an undisturbed case of 63 Fonseca I didn’t know I had. So, naturally, I brought a bottle (actually two) along with the Monfortino to the dinner.
Holy crap! If Hunter Thompson had a case of these in his trunk, he never would have bothered to go to Vegas. He would have left the ether at home, too. Decanted for about 6 hours before (I have a special case that secures decanters to go to tastings and such), the color was a radiant ruby, with just a touch of rosewood in the rim. The aromas were hard to describe. Red fruit mixed with a touch of caramel, with an intoxicating white flower top note, and stuff in the background that I still smell but have no idea what it was. One of those wines you just can’t get your nose out of the glass to drink it. But once I did, there was layer upon layer of concentrated fruit and spice on the palate, yet it was one of the most airy and elegant textures I have experienced in a port. There was no alcohol to find, in fact one of the participants asked if they fortified port “in the old days.” The finish didn’t disappoint, going on forever. I noticed that I wasn’t the only one who abandoned their chocolate torte (or whatever it was) just to bask in this wine. It was hard to talk about barnyard and wet cardboard after this wine, so I launched into a rambling dissertation on wine aging chemistry, and why that matters more than VA and all the rest. And I noticed that the second bottle of the port (I usually bring an unopened second just in case) had been opened and was making its rounds, so I just sat down and tried to figure out with everyone there where those spectacular aromas and flavors came from. And the Monfortino…I think it is finally entering its drinking window. I had the second bottle tonite just to be sure…
I was recently asked to give one of my “canned talks” on wine faults to a tasting dinner group. It’s not my favorite topic, but the dinner featured a vertical of Monfortino. I’ll talk about aliens for a vertical of Monfortino. What makes a wine shitty seems to be of more interest to young enthusiasts than what makes a wine great…or even what makes a wine a wine. When something is shitty, everyone seems to want to know why. When a wine has great aromas or great flavors, nobody seems to want to know how it got there. I’ve likened it to accidents on the highway. Everyone stops and wants to know what happened. What did someone do wrong? No one seems interested in how the 1 million cars the day before went through that same complex interchange without mishap, or about the most awe inspiring engineering ever done on a highway. Half of them were texting their significant others while traveling through. Talking about the chemistry of what makes wines yummy sends most everyone to their iPhone. Anyway, back to this tasting group. They wanted my canned talk on wine faults, aromas, and flavors. But at the same time, the fellow who called me lamented that they didn’t have any Monfortinos before 78. He knew I had some old Italians, so I offered to find a 71 Monfortino to add to their dinner. Since my cellar is only roughly organized, if at all, I began moving cases around where I thought most of my old Barolos were hiding. That’s when I found an undisturbed case of 63 Fonseca I didn’t know I had. So, naturally, I brought a bottle (actually two) along with the Monfortino to the dinner.
Holy crap! If Hunter Thompson had a case of these in his trunk, he never would have bothered to go to Vegas. He would have left the ether at home, too. Decanted for about 6 hours before (I have a special case that secures decanters to go to tastings and such), the color was a radiant ruby, with just a touch of rosewood in the rim. The aromas were hard to describe. Red fruit mixed with a touch of caramel, with an intoxicating white flower top note, and stuff in the background that I still smell but have no idea what it was. One of those wines you just can’t get your nose out of the glass to drink it. But once I did, there was layer upon layer of concentrated fruit and spice on the palate, yet it was one of the most airy and elegant textures I have experienced in a port. There was no alcohol to find, in fact one of the participants asked if they fortified port “in the old days.” The finish didn’t disappoint, going on forever. I noticed that I wasn’t the only one who abandoned their chocolate torte (or whatever it was) just to bask in this wine. It was hard to talk about barnyard and wet cardboard after this wine, so I launched into a rambling dissertation on wine aging chemistry, and why that matters more than VA and all the rest. And I noticed that the second bottle of the port (I usually bring an unopened second just in case) had been opened and was making its rounds, so I just sat down and tried to figure out with everyone there where those spectacular aromas and flavors came from. And the Monfortino…I think it is finally entering its drinking window. I had the second bottle tonite just to be sure…
I remember finding a lost case of 1977 Warre's and how surprised I was by that... but that's nothing compared to your gem. I just bought a case of 1963 Fonseca last week so it makes me feel good that yours showed so well. It sounded so amazing... and I'm sure it was!
I'll admit I'm an organizational geek, but really? Too much good stuff lying around? 
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