2017 Fonseca - Porto Vintage Port HALF BOTTLE (375ml)

Fonseca traces its roots to 1815, when Manuel Pedro Guimaraens acquired a controlling stake in the merchant firm Fonseca & Monteiro. Successive generations of the Guimaraens family have run the house ever since, and Fonseca has ranked among the first tier of Vintage Port producers since the mid-nineteenth century. Its Vintage Ports draw on three estates: Quinta de Cruzeiro and Quinta de Santo António in the Pinhão valley, which have anchored the house blend for a century, joined by Quinta do Panascal in the Távora valley. Fonseca has also been a longtime leader in organic and sustainable viticulture across the Douro.

The 2017 Vintage Port is a field blend built primarily from Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz, and Tinta Barroca, hand harvested from the three estate vineyards during a notably dry, warm growing season. The grapes were foot-trodden in granite lagares before fortification, then the wine spent approximately twenty months aging in used French oak. It was bottled unfiltered, in keeping with Fonseca's traditional approach, with total production reaching around 8,100 cases for the vintage.

The wine shows an inky purple-black core rimmed with magenta, opening to dense, dark woodland fruit layered with brighter red berry tones and a slatey minerality that keeps the richness in check. Leafy, balsamic notes and hints of cedar add complexity beneath the fruit. On the palate, tightly packed dark berry flavors expand through a velvety texture framed by taut, structured tannins into a long finish. It pairs well with venison, aged Comté, or a dark fruit tart.