Community Tasting Notes 14

• hutch Likes this wine: 96 points

  December 17, 2023 - Wow. This is crazy stuff. Wave after wave of rich dark fruits and chocolate notes and more and more. So fresh after 20 years, still can't believe it's that old. There is just so much fruit. It's also all balanced with nice acidity and not too much sweetness. Very rich, and very decadent. If a regular ruby port is a chocolate cake this is a torte. Spectacular!

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• drwine2001 wrote:

  May 2, 2023 - Tasting at Graham’s (Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal): Ruby throughout. Ripe plum and fig. Viscous but not heavy. Deep fruit and dark chocolate with a slightly wilder aspect. Early days for this, but it is already delicious while awaiting complexity.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Echinosum Likes this wine: 93 points

  December 23, 2022 - Much as remembered, and much enjoyed as drunk over 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year. If anything it got better over that 2 weeks as the tannins softened and more developed mocha flavours came through. Obviously this can be kept for many years more. This will be spread out over the years.

  Comment

• theportguy wrote: 92 points

  September 30, 2021 - 2021 FTLOP Harvest Tour; 9/19/2021-10/2/2021 (Portgugal): Pale purple in color with some subtle hues of red-brown. Lots of cocoa powder on the nose with blueberry and brambly dark fruits. Very rich mouthfeel with some dusty tannins and notes of chocolate, rich raspberry, and red fruits. Very long finish.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Echinosum Likes this wine: 93 points

  August 15, 2020 - My first bottle of a half dozen. I consider this very good to drink already, but clearly has the structure to last much longer. Whether it will improve, I have not sufficient knowledge to judge. It has the concentration that you can be happy with a small serving, and it lasted me over a fortnight, kept in the fridge, as is my habit, without evident deterioration.
  
  This has a concentration, complexity and completeness, fineness of tannins, and attractive fruit, that puts it well above the Taylors Vargellas 2002, and Quinta do Noval LBV unfiltered 2011, that are the only bottles of port I have drunk in the last several years. Since those are consistently scored around 90 and 91 respectively, so I think this must be worth at least 93. But I don't really have sufficient points of comparison.
  
  I had a small taste of Vesuvio 1997 when visiting the Symingtons' show quinta at Bomfim in Pinhao about 3 years ago, and that one was much tougher than this. The concentration was seriously impressive, but the fruit was still very dark, tar-like even. I felt it was going to need quite some time to resolve. Rather like some great Pauillac, I felt it was one of those wines you might admire, but are not really much fun. So I am much happier with this 2003 being so much more forward and fun.
  
  The presentation of this 6-bottle case is the most beautiful and tasteful I have ever seen. I don't think it is some special presentation package, I think it just comes like this. It came in a polished oak box, with a hinged lid and brass clip. The box included a glazed ceramic cellar bin label and a coffee-table book about the history of the quinta (like Vargellas, it has its own railway station.) Each bottle was wrapped in tissue. These bonus items have given some small pleasure even to those who don't drink.

  3 people found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 11

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2003
• Type Red - Fortified
• Producer Quinta do Vesuvio
• Varietal Port Blend
• Designation Vintage
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Portugal
• Region Douro
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation Porto
• UPC Codes 094799090205, 094799090236, 5010867370548

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 9 (1%)
• In Cellars 1,408 (83%)
• Consumed 285 (17%)

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