Fonseca Guimaraens 2012 Port

Fonseca Guimaraens 2012 Vintage Port 

Deep ruby colour with fine purple rim. On the nose it presents an impressive depth and intensity of fruit. Elegant and complex berry aromas intertwined with discreet balsamic and resinous notes of garrigue, cistus and wild plants. In the mouth the black fruit flavours show surprising freshness and a thick, tight mesh of tannins provides both structure and volume.

Wonderful, very long finish of juicy cassis and raspberry flavours. This seductive and balanced 2012 Guimaraens perfectly combines the depth and exuberance of Quinta do Panascal with the well-delineated fruit and intoxicating perfume of the Pinhão valley.

Each year the finest wines produced at the vintage are selected. If, after two years in wood, those from a particular harvest are judged to be above average in quality, the best may be blended together and bottled as a Fonseca or a Guimaraens Vintage Port. 

Fonseca Vintage Port is made only in the classic vintage years which produce wines of outstanding concentration and longevity. Guimaraens Vintage ports come from the best of the intervening years and will normally mature earlier. Vintage port is aged in bottle and should be stored horizontally with the label uppermost. With time, it forms a natural deposit or crust in the bottle and therefore requires decanting. 

Critics' Tasting Notes:

"The 2012 Guimaraens Vintage Port was bottled in 2014. It comes in at 103 grams per liter of residual sugar. Surprisingly powerful, this opens as a brooding Port. It isn't so appealing just now, admittedly, as the astringency comes to the fore pretty quickly and some heat is obvious early on. If it projects plenty of "serious Port" power rather well, it doesn't immediately project the concentrated fullness, say, of the Taylor, its sibling also reviewed this issue. Laced with rhubarbs and herbs, it seems a bit on the drier side, relatively speaking, and shows that occasional warmth on the finish. I gave this a couple of days in the fridge and it fleshed out, happily. This is the sleeper in the submissions from the Taylor Fladgate group this issue – least impressive on opening, but coming up on the inside track rather fast, at least with plenty of aeration. It probably has the most to prove in the cellar. Give this at least a decade in the cellar, at which point it should be showing better, although it may not be at peak."

93/100 points, Mark Squires, WINE ADVOCATE, reviewed April 2015

"Cassis, cigar box, chocolate and liquorice balance the silky tannins, attractively fruited, showing a black berried crunch at the end."

92/100 points (Silver Medal), Decanter World Wine Awards, 2024