Tasting notes

Fonseca vintage ports are marked by a style of great fruit richness, voluptuousness and firm tannic backbone. Their initial flavors of opulently concentrated black fruit and jammy spice evolve to reveal complex, silky impressions of dried currants, rose petal and dark chocolate with ending in a long, seductive finish.

Rating

Wine Spectator 94 points (May 15 2003) Fabulous nose of crushed raspberries, blackberries and licorice. Full-bodied and velvety, with superclean fruit and a long finish. Beauty. Very harmonious for Fonseca. Best after 2011. 12,500 cases made. –JS  Robert Parker 95 points (Oct 2002) Dense ruby/purple-colored, with an exotic, exuberant perfume of black fruits, flowers, incense, and licorice, this unctuously-textured, full-bodied port is one of the most concentrated of the vintage. Sweet, expansive, and succulent, this large-scaled, but remarkably well-balanced effort is surprisingly forward and accessible (by Fonseca’s standards). Anticipated maturity: 2006-2025.