Fonseca, Vintage Port 2017

Fonseca belongs in the first league of vintage port houses. Few port producers have maintained such consistency of quality and style from vintage to vintage. The layered, complex fruit typical of Fonseca holds sway over this weighty, powerful wine. This Vintage Port opens with a burst of dark, woodland fruit, dense and succulent, blended with fresher, more vibrant red berry aromas. A slatey minerality holds this exuberant fruitiness in check. The first impression on the palate, as on the nose, is of tightly packed, dense dark berry fruit, which then explodes on the mid-palate and surges into the long finish. The texture is round and velvety but the taut, sinewy tannins and a strand of crisp acidity provide firmness and structure. The layered, complex fruit typical of Fonseca holds sway over this weighty, powerful wine.