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Wine Spectator
Author: James Suckling
Issue: Web
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Until recently this wine was understated and closed. Now it has opened into a mammoth wine with so much fruit that it crushes your palate. Deep ruby, with ripe raspberry and cherry aromas, full-bodied, with layers of concentrated, sweet raspberry flavors, tons of tannin and an incredibly long finish. Perhaps as great as the '48.
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For The Love of Port
Author: Roy Hersh
Issue: Issue 34
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Medium ruby with a tawny rim. This looked a bit advanced and when wI first put my nose in the glass, I was blown away by the level of alcohol and was almost afraid to take a sip. It was actually pretty hot and I decided to come back to this a couple of hours later to see if further time in the decanter would help. Fortunately it did. Strawberry and red licorice aromatics with a smidge of spirit left, but nowhere near what it was like initially. Cherry flavored and a bit oxidized, the flavors were just not showing correctly and I can’t say exactly what was wrong with the bottle, but it did not deliver what this Port is capable of. By the end of our stay it had improved even more and was now a fine Fonseca, but I may have been generous with my score, but others were in the same range.
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Buying Guide - 2nd Edition (1989)
Author: Robert Parker
Issue: B4
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Fonseca is one of the great port lodges, producing the most exotic and most complex port. If Fonseca lacks the sheer weight and power of a Taylor, Dow or Warre, or the opulent sweetness and intensity of a Graham, it excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavors. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. When it is young, it often loses out in blind tastings to the heavier, weightier, more tannic wines, but I always find myself upgrading my opinion of Fonseca after it has had 7-10 years of age. The 1977 has developed magnificently in the bottle, and while it clearly needs another decade to reach its summit, it is the best Fonseca since the 1970 and 1963.
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