Fonseca Vintage Port 2017

Professional Ratings

• 98 Wine Enthusiast

  The wine’s fine perfumed black plum fruits give a wonderful jammy character while bringing out a fresh edge. These are balanced by the dry core of this beautiful wine with its rich, generous tannins. It will all come together from 2030 in a very fine, integrated wine. Kobrand.

• 98 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2017 Vintage Port, not quite bottled when originally seen, has now been in bottle for a couple of years. It is a field blend (with typical grapes like Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca) aged for approximately 20 months in used French oak. It comes in with 98 grams of residual sugar. This is a great Fonseca, distinctive, with a touch of eucalyptus and plums, but also loaded with delicious fruit. Like its Taylor's siblings, there is also a fine backbone. I'd say it is a step behind the Taylor's duo this year, but not by much. It will age well, to say the least. Beat after 2030.

• 97 Wine Spectator
  Dark and dense, with fig bread, baker’s chocolate and tar notes leading off before the core flavors of plum, black currant and blackberry paste finally start to emerge. The wild, spirited finish shows cast iron, licorice snap and roasted alder elements, delivering a decidedly chewy feel. A big, old-school, throwback Port that will age at a glacial pace. Best from 2035 through 2060
• 95 James Suckling
  Ripe and soft with loads of plummy, smoky and earthy character. Full body. Very sweet. Round and very soft textured. Flavorful finish. Drink in 2025 and onwards.
• 95 Decanter
  Already beautifully integrated, this is showing great purity and poise. It's open and in its first bloom of youth, with lovely aromatic red berry fruit and floral aromas, plus a touch of leafiness. It's soft and fleshy initially, seemingly not as big as its stablemate Taylor's - and not quite so deep in color - though with dark chocolate concentration and mid-palate firmness. Lovely full, ripe tannins mass in the mouth, well defined, with fresh berry fruit remerging on the broad, expansive finish.
• 94 Wine & Spirits

  This wine contrasts sunny black-cherry lusciousness with sous bois shadows of schist, black mushroom and conifer. Then there’s the dark-chocolate freshness that pegs it as a Vale Mendiz classic, grown in the hills above Pinhão. The arid year lent tar-black earthiness, and the oak is a little prominent right now, but neither impinges on the wine’s clear identity. My last note after three days of blind tasting: “I’d like to own that.”