Fonseca Port
Fonseca is one of the oldest and largest port shippers. First trading in 1815, the firm recruited Manoel Pedro Guimarãens. In 1822 he set sail for England; by travelling he could avoid persecution in Portugal as an outspoken liberal, and sell wines from London that Fonseca shipped. Manoel juggled a successful business with supporting fellow exiles of civil war. When Maria II emerged victorious, he was rewarded with the title of Knight, then Knight Commander, of the Order of Christ.
Around 1860 Manoel’s two eldest sons joined the firm, now M.P. Guimarãens & Son. Together they acquired the Fonseca trademark from the original owners’ heirs and, almost forty years later, the next generation joined: Frank (Pedro Francis Fladgate Guimarãens) came to Oporto to supervise vintage production. He remained in the position for more than 50 years, and since then the role has been passed to his great-nephew Bruce, then Bruce’s son David, Guimarãens. Fonseca is now owned by Taylor Fladgate but David, the sixth generation of Guimarãens, remains as head winemaker.
They are the only House with a perfect 100 points by critics on not one but four separate vintages in the last century, known globally for their wines’ intensity of fruit, opulence, structure and balance to last for decades. Wine experts praise the House; Robert Parker wrote: “Fonseca is one of the great port lodges, producing the most exotic and complex port… one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage Ports.” James Suckling also endorsed them, stating that Fonseca are “perhaps the most consistently great of all.”.
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47 products found.
Fonseca Port, 2018
Guimaraens- Single Quinta Vintage Port
Tasting Notes Impenetrable purple-black at the centre, with a narrow band of violet on the rim. The nose is dense and compact, with impressive depth and background. The fruit quality is superb, a luscious blend of black and red berry aromas which is the hallmark feature of Fonseca’s vintage ports, mingled with notes of dark chocolate. Around this core of powerful, complex fruit is an aura of balsamic, minty scents. Although the nose is sensuous and seductive, there is an attractive firm edge, provided by graphite and a flinty minerality. The first impression on the palate is of silky smoothness …
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Price: $59.81 USD
Stock: 82 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2017
Vintage Port- MAGNUM, DOC Douro
*** 17.5/20 - Jancis ***
*** 95/100 - Vinous ***
*** 18/20 - Mayson ***
A narrow magenta ring around a core of inky purple black. The nose opens with a burst of dark, woodland fruit, dense and succulent, blended with fresher, more vibrant red berry aromas. A slatey minerality holds this exuberant fruitiness in check. At this stage, the nose is still reserved and discreetly aromatic, revealing leafy, balsamic scents and cedary notes of sawn wood. The first impression on the palate, as on the nose, is of tightly packed, dense dark berry fruit, which then explodes on the mid-palate and surges into the long finish. The texture is round and velvety but the taut, sinewy tannins and a strand of crisp acidity provide firmness and structure. …
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Price: $238.18 USD
Stock: 7 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2017
Vintage Port, DOC Douro
(1 x 37.5cl HALF bottle)
Review Scores
*** 17.5/20 - Jancis ***
*** 95/100 - Vinous ***
*** 18/20 - Mayson ***
Tasting Note
A narrow magenta ring around a core of inky purple black. The nose opens with a burst of dark, woodland fruit, dense and succulent, blended with fresher, more vibrant red berry aromas. A slatey minerality holds this exuberant fruitiness in check. At this stage, the nose is still reserved and discreetly aromatic, revealing leafy, balsamic scents and cedary notes of sawn wood. The first impression on the palate, as on the nose, is of tightly packed, dense dark berry fruit, which then explodes on the mid-palate and surges into the long finish. …
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Price: $52.56 USD
Stock: 6 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2017
Vintage Port, DOC Douro
Imperiale (600 cl)
Review Scores
*** 17.5/20 - Jancis ***
*** 95/100 - Vinous ***
*** 18/20 - Mayson ***
Tasting Note
A narrow magenta ring around a core of inky purple black. The nose opens with a burst of dark, woodland fruit, dense and succulent, blended with fresher, more vibrant red berry aromas. A slatey minerality holds this exuberant fruitiness in check. At this stage, the nose is still reserved and discreetly aromatic, revealing leafy, balsamic scents and cedary notes of sawn wood. The first impression on the palate, as on the nose, is of tightly packed, dense dark berry fruit, which then explodes on the mid-palate and surges into the long finish. …
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Price: $1,057.85 USD
Stock: 1 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2016
Vintage Port, DOC Douro
***96-98 Points Wine Advocate-Parker***
***97 Points- Wine Enthusiast***
MAGNUM
This 2016 Magnum Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca is hugely rich and profound. Massive concentration of sweet black fruits, spice then liquorice and chocolate. The finish of this colossus lasts over a minute. Complex and immensely dense. A blockbuster for the long term.
Serving Suggestion:
When mature this port will need to be decanted to remove sediment. Serve at room temperature on its own or with vintage mature blue cheeses such as stilton, Cashel Blue, Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Saint Augur Blue. Vintage port is also good with chocolate - a flattering accompaniment to top quality hand-made chocolates and artisan chocolate bars. …
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Price: $224.88 USD
Stock: 3 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2016
Vintage Port, DOC Douro 300cl ** DOUBLE MAGNUM ** **96-98 Points Wine Advocate-Parker***
This 2016 Vintage Port Wine is a rare double Magnum Format from Fonseca, is hugely rich and profound. Massive concentration of sweet black fruits, spice then liquorice and chocolate. The finish of this colossus lasts over a minute. Complex and immensely dense. A blockbuster for the long term.
Serving Suggestion:
When mature this port will need to be decanted to remove sediment. Serve at room temperature on its own or with vintage mature blue cheeses such as stilton, Cashel Blue, Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Saint Augur Blue. Vintage port is also good with chocolate - a flattering accompaniment to top quality hand-made chocolates and artisan chocolate bars. …
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Price: $452.41 USD
Stock: 3 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2016
Vintage Port, Douro 1 x 600cl Imperial ***96-98 Points Wine Advocate-Parker***
This 2016 Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca is a very rare imperial.
Fonseca has announced that it has declared 2016 as a classic vintage. The announcement was made on 23rd April, 2018 in keeping with house tradition. Comments on the Fonseca 2016 Vintage Port are as follows:.
David Guimaraens, Head Wine Maker
Commenting on the viticultural year: "The harvest of 2016 will be remembered as having started very late. Fonseca's Quinta do Cruzeiro started picking right at the end of September and Quinta do Santo António at the beginning of October. This was due to the late start to the ripening season and to the long and very even maturation of the crop. …
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Price: $1,057.85 USD
Stock: 2 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2016
Vintage Port, DOC Douro - 1x75cl Bottle
***96-98 Points Wine Advocate-Parker***
This 2016 Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca is hugely rich and profound. Massive concentration of sweet black fruits, spice then liquorice and chocolate. The finish of this colossus lasts over a minute. Complex and immensely dense. A blockbuster for the long term.
Serving Suggestion:
When mature this port will need to be decanted to remove sediment. Serve at room temperature on its own or with vintage mature blue cheeses such as stilton, Cashel Blue, Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Saint Augur Blue. Vintage port is also good with chocolate - a flattering accompaniment to top quality, hand-made chocolates. …
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Price: $118.43 USD
Stock: 45 in Stock
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Fonseca Port, 2015
Vintage Port, Douro Guimaraens- DOUBLE MAGNUM
Very Rare Double Magnum Format
This 2015 Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca was released under the Guimaraens label. Managing Director, Adrian Bridge, commented: As Fonseca’s 200th anniversary year, I am delighted that 2015 has produced a Vintage Port of such excellent quality. It will be released as a Guimaraens Vintage with a special commemorative label to mark the occasion.’ He added, ‘The 2015 Vintage Ports are attractive and approachable on the nose but supported by big, firm tannins. The Guimaraens Vintage 2015 will make excellent early drinking but will not disappoint those who prefer to cellar it for the future. …
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Price: $432.45 USD
Stock: 2 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2015
Vintage Port, Douro Guimaraens- MAGNUM ***92 Points- RobertParker.com***
This 2015 Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca was released under the Guimaraens label. Managing Director, Adrian Bridge, commented: As Fonseca’s 200th anniversary year, I am delighted that 2015 has produced a Vintage Port of such excellent quality. It will be released as a Guimaraens Vintage with a special commemorative label to mark the occasion.’ He added, ‘The 2015 Vintage Ports are attractive and approachable on the nose but supported by big, firm tannins. The Guimaraens Vintage 2015 will make excellent early drinking but will not disappoint those who prefer to cellar it for the future.’ Fonseca’s wine maker, David Guimaraens, remarked: ‘The dry spring and summer produced low yields but the healthiest crop we have seen for many years. …
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Price: $158.34 USD
Stock: 5 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2015
Guimaraens Vintage Port, Douro Rare 9 Litre Bottle
Very Rare 9 Litre Bottle Format
This 2015 Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca was released under the Guimaraens label. Managing Director, Adrian Bridge, commented: As Fonseca’s 200th anniversary year, I am delighted that 2015 has produced a Vintage Port of such excellent quality. It will be released as a Guimaraens Vintage with a special commemorative label to mark the occasion.’ He added, ‘The 2015 Vintage Ports are attractive and approachable on the nose but supported by big, firm tannins. The Guimaraens Vintage 2015 will make excellent early drinking but will not disappoint those who prefer to cellar it for the future. …
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Price: $1,323.98 USD
Stock: 1 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2011
Vintage Port, Douro ***19.5 Points- JancisRobinson.com*** ***97-99 Points- RobertParker.com***
RARE MAGNUM FORMAT
Fonseca declares its vintages only in the most exceptional of years, and in 2011, like many, Fonseca benefitted from a perfect ending to the growing season, ensuring optimum ripeness for their grapes. This allowed deep, powerful and aromatic wines to be made on each of the Fonseca Quintas in the Távora and Pinhão valleys. 2011 has thus given Fonseca another opportunity to express the best characteristics of its vintage port to conoisseurs: its concentration of black fruits, its firm tannic grip, its dense velvety texture and its vibrant aromatics. It bears the promise of many years of development in bottle. …
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Price: $379.23 USD
Stock: 3 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2011
Vintage Port, Douro
The 2011 Vintage Port Wine from Fonseca has been described as "heady, opulent nose. Completely enveloping, Smells as though there is going to be the most fabulous texture. Wow! All stops pulled out for this one. It's all absolutely gorgeous intensity of sweet fruit on the front palate and then gradually the schist and structure reveal themselves. This is really wonderful stuff. So tempting to sip it decades before it is ready." Jancisrobinson.com
Fonseca declares its vintages only in the most exceptional of years, and in 2011, like many, Fonseca benefitted from a perfect ending to the growing season, ensuring optimum ripeness for their grapes. …
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Price: $131.73 USD
Stock: 9 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2009
Vintage Port, Douro IMPERIAL 6lt Bottle
A very rare outstanding 6 litre bottle of 2009 vintage Port Wine from Fonseca.
Impenetrable black colour. A classic Fonseca nose dominated by an exuberant, hedonistic fruitiness, a powerful redolence of dark dense blackberry and blackcurrant which slowly releases a heady mix of spicy and herbal aromas, seductive notes of coffee and cocoa, hints of prune and wild scents of gum cistus. The thick velvety tannins give the wine a voluptuous density, integrating effortlessly with the sumptuous infusion of blackberry jam, dark chocolate and liquorice which coats the palate. The tannins are also present on the finish which brims with blackberry and blackcurrant flavour. …
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Price: $1,323.98 USD
Stock: 1 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 2007
Vintage Port, Douro ***96/100- Wine journal*** ***94/100- Wine Advocate***
96/100 (Outstanding) Wine journal
94/100 (Outstanding) Wine Advocate
Reviews: "The 2007 Fonseca Vintage Port is opaque purple-colored with a high-class perfume of lavender, Asian spices, pencil lead, incense, and an amalgam of black fruits. On the palate it is voluminous with layered, succulent fruit, outstanding density, and excellent integration of tannin, acidity, and alcohol. The long finish and the wine’s impeccable balance suggest a lengthy evolution and a drinking window extending out to 2045. " Jay Miller, Wine Advocate.
"The nose is quintessential Fonseca, like a riotous party reaching its crescendo in the glass. …
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Price: $118.43 USD
Stock: 3 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1983
Vintage Port
Fonseca is one of our all-time favourites. Fonseca's 1983-vintage Port is made with a harvest that survived the first snowfall in Pinhão in 20 years and heavy rain through the spring. The result is intense aromas of dark chocolate, prune, fig and hints of rich double cream. Consider pairing its chocolate, fig, prune, raisin and walnut flavours with a cheeseboard or with festive fare over the Christmas period.
An outstanding Port rating 92/100 from an outstanding vintage. Robert Parker writes of this port... "Fonseca is one of the great port lodges, producing the most exotic and most complex port. …
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Price: $131.73 USD
Stock: 6 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1980
Vintage Port
Fonseca is one of the great port lodges, producing the most exotic and most complex port. It excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavours. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. When it is young, it often loses out in blind tastings to the heavier, weightier, more tannic wines, but I always find myself upgrading my opinion of Fonseca after it has had 7-10 years of age. The 1980 is very good, possibly excellent". Robert Parker, Wine Buying Guide 1989 Parker
…
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Price: $158.34 USD
Stock: 2 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1977
Vintage Port
Excellent provenance
Fonseca is one of the great port lodges, producing the most exotic and most complex port. If Fonseca lacks the sheer weight and power of a Taylor, Dow or Warre, or the opulent sweetness and intensity of a Graham, it excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavors. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. When it is young, it often loses out in blind tastings to the heavier, weightier, more tannic wines, but I always find myself upgrading my opinion of Fonseca after it has had 7-10 years of age. …
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Price: $264.80 USD
Stock: 8 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1976
Guimaraens Vintage Port
REVIEWS:
1976 Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port - The color of this was amazing dark, being solid black with a tawny colored rim around the outside. I can’t ever remember seeing a color like this on this old VP. The nose was very gummy and thick with a floral aspect similar to the elderberry flower. Very reducted on the palate with thick tar, raisins, and green stems. Yet it was still tannic at the same time. The finish was moderate with a rich mint aspect to it. While good in its own right, served blind this could have easily been mistaken for a lighter style PX Sherry. An extremely dry winter was followed by a hot summer causing springs and wells to dry up for the first time in living memory. …
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Price: $357.94 USD
Stock: 4 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1976
Guimaraens Vintage Port
Unlabelled
REVIEWS:
1976 Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port - The color of this was amazing dark, being solid black with a tawny colored rim around the outside. I can’t ever remember seeing a color like this on this old VP. The nose was very gummy and thick with a floral aspect similar to the elderberry flower. Very reducted on the palate with thick tar, raisins, and green stems. Yet it was still tannic at the same time. The finish was moderate with a rich mint aspect to it. While good in its own right, served blind this could have easily been mistaken for a lighter style PX Sherry. An extremely dry winter was followed by a hot summer causing springs and wells to dry up for the first time in living memory. …
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Price: $331.33 USD
Stock: 1 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1973
Crusted Port - Bottled in 1973
Badly Damaged labels
A very rare bottle of 1973 crusted port.
Crusted Port is a very small category, named because of the 'crust' of sediment that it forms in the bottle. Invented by the British-owned Port houses predominantly for the British Port drinker, it is intended to be a more economical alternative to Vintage or Late Bottled Vintage. Crusted is a blend of several harvests, which are bottled without being filtered and laid down to mature like Vintage wines. Using this approach allows the manufacturer to use some of the lesser harvests but still produce a good rich full bodied wine at an economical price. …
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Price: $299.39 USD
Stock: 5 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1972
Guimaraens Single Quinta Vintage Port
Fonseca has belonged in the first rank of Vintage Port producers since the nineteenth century. Its Vintage Ports are noted for their luscious fruitiness which develops great opulence and complexity with age.
This is a very rare example from the 1972 vintage. This wine has a tawny coloured rim around the outside. The nose is very gummy and thick with orange peel, slightly medicinal. Very reducted on the palate with thick tar, raisins, orange peel.
Learn more about Fonseca
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Price: $525.60 USD
Stock: 1 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1970
Vintage Port
Imported and Bottled by Grants of St James
An outstanding port from a classic vintage. The Fonseca 1970 is now fully mature, and is probably one of the finest glasses of port that you will ever taste. A wine of this quality will age superbly for many decades to come. A magnificent wine with abundant ripe fruit flavours and concentrated tannins. Perfect harmony and balance places this Port amongst the all-time greats.
Robert Parker, renowned critic writes of this Port.... "... it excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavours. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. …
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Price: $326.00 USD
Stock: 20 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1970
Vintage Port
Shipped and Bottled by Army and Navy Stores
The 1970 Fonseca Vintage Port is an outstanding port from a classic vintage. The Fonseca 1970 is now fully mature, and is probably one of the finest glasses of port that you will ever taste. A wine of this quality will age superbly for many decades to come. A magnificent wine with abundant ripe fruit flavours and concentrated tannins. Perfect harmony and balance places this Port amongst the all-time greats.
Robert Parker, renowned critic writes of this Port.... "... it excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavours. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. …
more >>>
Price: $299.39 USD
Stock: 3 in Stock
Fonseca Port, 1970
Vintage Port
Remains of Labels | Shipped and Bottled by Army and Navy Stores
The 1970 Fonseca Vintage Port is an outstanding port from a classic vintage. The Fonseca 1970 is now fully mature, and is probably one of the finest glasses of port that you will ever taste. A wine of this quality will age superbly for many decades to come. A magnificent wine with abundant ripe fruit flavours and concentrated tannins. Perfect harmony and balance places this Port amongst the all-time greats.
Robert Parker, renowned critic writes of this Port.... "... it excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavours. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. …
more >>>
Price: $246.17 USD
Stock: 3 in Stock