Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage Port 2018
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Elegant, complex and fruity Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port from Fonseca. Intense juicy berry fruit with raspberry and strawberry aromas backed up by Christmassy spice. Full-bodied rich black cherry and damson fruit emerge on the palate, with hints of black tea, oak and rose petal. With a delicious velvety texture, crisp tannins and lovely acidity, it has poise and balance with an irresistible lengthy finish.
Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) is a high quality Port from a single year. Unlike Vintage Port (which does most of its maturing in bottle), LBV is aged in oak vats of 50 'pipes' capacity for 4 to 6 years and is ready to drink on release.
The wines used to produce Fonseca LBV were drawn from a reserve of some of the best full-bodied red Ports produced at the 2016 harvest, from grapes grown on Fonseca's own vineyards and on other top properties in the Cima Corgo and Douro Superior areas of the Douro. LBV Unfiltered is aged in large wooden vats and then drawn off into bottle with no fining or filtration to preserve richness, concentration and fullness of body and flavour. After a year or two, if cellared in cool conditions, a natural haze or light sediment may form, which is a natural process. Decanting will remove this.
Tasting Note: Exuberantly aromatic nose of ripe red and black berries with notes of cedar and sweet cinnamon spice. Elegant and complex with an intense, ripe finish. Good acidity makes it an ideal match for blue cheese, aged hard cheese or chocolate.
| Style | Red Wine, Moelleux, Full-bodied, Non Sparkling |
|---|---|
| Food & Wine Matching | Blue Cheese, Cheese, Chocolate, Dessert |
| Viticulture | Non-Organic |
| Vintage | 2018 |
| Cellarage | A very versatile wine that is bottled when ready to drink. Benefits from decanting before serving as it is not filtered when bottled. Store upright in the dark at a cool, constant temperature. |
| Vinification | From grapes grown on Fonseca’s own vineyards and other top properties in the Cima Corgo and Douro Superior regions of the Douro valley. Warm days and cool nights permitted long fermentations to extract flavour and tannins from the skins before ageing in large wooden vats for 4 to 6 years before being drawn off into bottle with no fining or filtration. |
| Alcohol By Volume (%) | 20 |
Fonseca Port
Established in the same year as the battle of Waterloo, 1815, Fonseca is one of the most celebrated Port houses. Wines continue to be made by the Guimarens family - now fifth generation winemakers - in the firm's 3 estates of Quinta do Panascal, Cruzeiro and Santo António in the Douro Valley.
James Suckling commented in his book on Vintage Port: "The vintage Ports of Fonseca are perhaps the most consistently great of them all. Not only do they have a striking fleshiness and powerful richness when young, but they retain that youthfulness for decades."
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