Fonseca, "Declared Vintage" Port, Portugal, 2009 - (Half Bottle 375ml)

Overview of the Wine
Fonseca Port was founded in 1822 and grew rapidly in reputation and importance. Since its foundation, successive generations of the Guimaraens family have upheld the Company’s reputation. Today, Fonseca occupies a leading position as a specialist producer of quality wood ports and as one of the top vintage houses.

Fonseca may indeed be unique in the annals of Port in that every Fonseca vintage port in the last 100 years has been made by just four members of the Guimaraens family. The fourth member, David Guimaraens, continues the tradition having taken over from his father as winemaker in 1992. This remarkable continuity of winemaker is clearly evident in the wine. The company continues to foot tread every single grape grown in its three vineyards in granite stone troughs in the traditional way.

In his book, Vintage Port, James Suckling has written: "Fonseca is the King of Port. It produces the best Vintage Port in every declared year, with very few exceptions." Robert Parker summed up Fonseca's style as "The most exotic and most complex Port...With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage Ports."

Grape / Blend
Port

Origin
Portugal

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
Impenetrable black color. A classic Fonseca nose dominated by an exuberant, hedonistic fruitness, a powerful redolence of dark dense blackberry and blackcurrant which slowly releases a heady mix of spicy herbal aromas, seductive notes of coffee and cocoa, hints of prune and wild scents of gumcistus. The thick velvety tannins give the wine a voluptuous density, integrating effortlessly with the sumptuous infusion of blackberry jam, dark chocolate and licorice which coats the palate. The tannins are also present on the finish which brims with blackberry and blackcurrant flavor.

95 Points - Wine Enthusiast

A classic Fonseca, rich and powerful, with just an extra edge of weight from the vintage. It has a dry character, a tannic edge that gives great promise, but the open-hearted fruit is all there. A wonderfully intense wine for aging.

95 Points - Wine Spectator

Gorgeously vibrant and grapey, with good cut to the luscious dark fruit and cedar flavors that are flanked by zesty acidity and tannins. A touch brooding midpalate, with a minerally rush and a finish of slate and iron. Best from 2016 through 2036. Smart Buy

94 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Fonseca 2009 has a very sweet, typically opulent bouquet of black plum, blackberry, chimney soot and a touch of pencil shavings that is very complex and alluring. The palate is full-bodied with powerful ripe blackberry, allspice, clove and balsamic notes, a roiling, powerful, assertive Fonseca with a sweet, dark chocolate-tinged finish that grips the mouth, but it needs two decades to mellow and demonstrate the finesse to balance the intensity. This is a wonderful 2009 Vintage Port, though I suspect that the 2011 will ultimately prove even better.

Product size: 375ml