On 4 Sep – by coincidence, the first day of their harvest in the Douro – Australian-trained Taylor Fladgate Partnership winemaker David Guimaraens gave a tutored tasting of nine Fonseca ports in the Crystal Suite of the Dorchester Hotel. The setting was sophisticated and refined, as was his lecture – and indeed the wines that followed.
Fonseca have a rich and complex history that combines tradition and innovation in their approach to port-making. Quinta do Panascal, the focus of the presentation, demonstrates that complex heritage ably: it was, in 1992, the first organic vineyard in the region and saw pioneering...