CHAMBERS & CHAMBERS® Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage Port 2017 (Portugal) – [RP 97-99] [JS 95] – 6045289742495

Notes from the Winemaker:

Vesuvio’s old vineyards produce a very small number of bunches per plant, rarely yielding more than 700g/vine. These tiny quantities are harvested from small, compact bunches which produce tremendously concentrated and well-structured wines. The Vesuvio 2016 was made from a combination of the property’s choicest vineyards, carefully selected by Charles and his team. The Vale da Teja vineyards, on the western extremity of the Quinta provided the principal structure. The mature plantings, all dating from the early 1970s, of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Amarela brought fantastically floral aromas to the wine. To enhance the aromatic profile, these grapes were cool-fermented in the Quinta’s historic lagares where the usual team of up to 50 treaders worked tirelessly. The Vinha do Pombal vineyard, gracing the terraced slopes of the central valley at Vesuvio, contributed Souso for the acidity which brings freshness to the wine. The Castelos section contributed Alicante Bouschet for its substance and structure.

97-99 Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate:
“The 2017 Vintage Port is a blend of 33% Touriga Nacional, 35% Touriga Franca, 15% Souso and 12% Alicante Bouschet, plus miscellaneous others filling out the blend. This was bottled about a month before tasting after 18 months in seasoned vats, but the just-bottled sample was not really ready. This was instead a pre-bottling sample. It comes in with 115 grams of residual sugar.

Very fresh, it also has luscious fruit, vivid fruit flavor and big power underneath. It coats the palate and is one of the fleshiest of the wines in the Symington stable this issue, but its best feature is the delightfully juicy finish. It’s delicious, long and kind of spectacular. Tight, it also demonstrated the ability to expand in the glass. Then, it showed off the pure power. The combination of lots of fruit, lots of power and endless flavor to go with the endless finish mean that this is a rather stunning follow-up to recent vintages. It is going to need some time. I did (again) like the Capela, its sibling this issue, better tend to lean toward structure more than fruitiness but at half the price, I and other bargain hunters might be content here. Stylistically, this certainly has plenty of virtues of its own, and it will likely be accessible a bit earlier.

It will be released in the USA in the third quarter of the year. There were 1,200 cases produced, which makes it easily available too—a nice combination of price, availability and quality as top wines go.” – Mark Squires (Jul 11, 2019)