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Drunk at the SQVP Night Tasting.

From a bottle clearly labelled as Fonseca Guimaraens 1978, but sealed with a cork branded Fonseca Cruzeiro 1978 - could this have been a single quinta port?

Mature in colour with a brick rim; quite light at 40% opaque. Pleasant on the nose, mixing spicy sandalwood with sweet fat plum. Soft and round entry, quite light but delicately sweet and flavoursome. Lots of plum on the palate supported by gentle coffee tannins that give a lovely balance and feel to the palate. A delicious coffee finish, accompanied by soft candied fruit that lingers a while. Very nice, drinking beautifully. My port of the night. Served blind, this was guessed to be Vargellas 1967. 91/100. Drunk 07-Sep-17. Decanted 9 hours.

That discussion came up with Adrian during the FG tasting some years ago. Someone who also attended please refresh our memories.


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No backstory of previous tastings but this is a port which I remember with much fondness as one of my first tentative steps in the way of port nearly 30 years ago. Lovely to hear it is still humming along.

I've found a discussion on the corks branded with the Quintas do Cruzeiro name. Check out here.
https://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopf ... iro#p81045

Adrian said it was not a SQVP at the big FG tasting in London in 2011. And according to the discussion Adrian had his lap top and looked it up.

(Speculation: Since they only bought that Quinta in the 1970's, a short time earlier, perhaps they intended to bottle a SQVP, ordered the corks, then decided against it. Instead using the corks already on hand for the FG bottlings. Remember this was still a time when the country was still recovering from all the financial and political drama of that decade.)

Thanks Andy, useful background information.