1963 Fonseca Vintage Port

A grand slam. Deep ruby with a slightly red edge, intense black cherry and raspberry nose, full-bodied, with masses of fruit, full tannins and an extremely long finish. This can age indefinitely. (JS)

The 1963 vintage of Fonseca is one of my favorite Ports ever and the wine continues to absolutely soar at age fifty-six! The bouquet is deep, pure and wide open, offering up an aromatic constellation of sweet cassis, black cherries, licorice, a beautiful base of soil tones, a dollop of orange peel, cigar wrapper, cedar, celery seed and blossoming spice elements in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very complex, with a great core, impeccable focus and balance and still a bit of backend tannin evident on the very long and very refined finish. This is at its apogee today, but it still has many, many decades ahead of it and will eventually transition into a more ethereal and transparent example of Fonseca, with even more spice and the plush fruit of today turning more to dried fruit tones. But, despite the ’63 still having more developmental stages ahead of it, there is no earthly reason that I can think of for not drinking it now at this current summit!