Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage 2011
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A perfect end to the meal, this benefits from decanting. A generously-proportioned glass will show its rich fruity nose best. Excellent with full-flavored blue cheeses (Stilton or Roquefort), chocolate and berry fruit desserts.
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Wine & Spirits
David Guimaraens blends this wine from Fonseca Vintage lots that do not make the final cut, along with wines initially designated for LBV. He bottles the wine unfined and unfiltered, intending it to be decanted. His 2011 is remarkable: It has the succulent fruit depths of the Fonseca style, and the intensity of a Vintage-level wine. You could quibble and say the tannins are not Vintage quality, with some rhubarb-like astringency, or the wine is too big and powerful for an LBV. But you’re not likely to find many LBVs with this full-on ripeness, extraordinary lusciousness and complex flavor length. It’s one of several outstanding LBVs from the 2011 vintage, which we covered in depth in our December 2016 issue.
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Decanter
Deep purple black in color. A fine, elegant bouquet. Rich black fruit and dark cherry aromas, with hints of eucalyptus and spice. The palate shows luscious, rich blackberry fruit and a hint of blueberry. A wine with lovely textural quality; velvety smooth.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Port is an unfiltered field blend that comes with a bar top cork. It comes in at 108 grams per liter of residual sugar and was bottled in 2016, according to the label. Rather gorgeous, this fresh, tight and powerful Fonseca is perfectly focused, extracted and tightly-wound, finishing with intensity of flavor laced with some herbs and a hint of garrigue. Yet, everything is always in a very controlled fashion brilliantly supported by its structure. This is a beauty, another super 2011 LBV.
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Wine Spectator
Rich, structured and elegant, featuring luxuriantly spiced flavors of dark plum, chocolate and blackberry pie. The svelte finish is creamy, with plenty of minerally notes and a hint of pepper. Drink now. 650 cases imported.
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From the legendary 1840, Fonseca's first Vintage Port release, to the superb declared vintages of the last decade, the house has produced a succession of highly acclaimed wines even in the most adverse moments of history.
This consistency derives not only from continuity of family involvement, and the knowledge and skill passed down from one generation to the next, but also a close link with the vineyard. The firm's three estates of Cruzeiro, Panascal and Santo António are the heart of the distinctive character of Fonseca's Vintage Ports.
Fonseca's respect for the vineyard and the unique environment of the Douro Valley expresses itself in the firm's leadership in the field of sustainable and organic viticulture. It was the first house to offer a Port made entirely from organically produced grapes.
As it approaches its bicentenary, Fonseca can take pride in its past and look forward to the future with confidence. Wine drinkers increasingly seek wines of authenticity and character with a genuine story to tell and made by creative winemakers who understand their terroir and respect the environment.
Perhaps more than any other Port house, Fonseca has built a loyal community of Port enthusiasts who value its individuality and the inimitable character of its wines. These include connoisseurs, collectors, sommeliers and restaurateurs as well as those who simply enjoy drinking its wonderfully rich and complex Ports.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.