Delaforce Late Bottled Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal

德拉福斯晚裝波特酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：3269

The 2017 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend from old vines and comes in with 106 grams per liter of residual sugar. It was bottled with a bar-top cork in June 2021 after aging in large old tonels for about four years. Concentrated and dense, this is a relatively deep LBV this year. It is ready to drink, but it has enough structure to seem interesting, not just fruit-forward. It has some power and some pop, finishing with a touch of red berry fruit. It starts off with a hint of cistus for aromatics. Overall, this is very nice, but it lacks some finesse. For the price point and the category, there won't be many complaints, and in some ways, it competes well with the 2020 Delaforce Vintage Port in this report. In time, they will separate more in favor of the Vintage Port, but today this is a good bargain.

The 2016 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend from old vines and comes in with 107 grams per liter of residual sugar. It was bottled with a bar-top cork in June 2020 after aging in tonels. This producer (the actual producer is Real Companhia Velha, which owns the brand) has a sibling wine in this report, the Real Companhia Velha Síbio. They are night-and-day different wines with the same price points, so choose your styles. The Síbio is richer and fruitier but less nuanced. This is more elegant, showing far more finesse. They both have power, but this might even have a bit more, along with better aromatics. This is less of a "wow" wine at first taste, but it probably wins in the end. My first pick was the Síbio, but I settled on this. They should both hold throughout the decade, maybe longer, but aging is not really the point here. Focused, intense and precise, this is very well done.

The 2013 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend from old vines coming in with 102 grams per liter of residual sugar. After some six years in old tonels, it was filtered and bottled in June 2020 with a bar-top cork. Rich and jammy, this is also soft and fills the mouth. There's not much structure. It lacks some expression of fruit, but the good news is that it has some maturity at this point. It drinks nicely, and the price is reasonable. I would tend to drink it young, like now, but it will hold.

The 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Port is an unfiltered field blend coming in with 107 grams per liter of residual sugar and bottled in January 2017. This is very attractive and rather powerful. Elegant in the mid-palate, it's then all about the power, steel and intensity for structure. This is a big boy in terms of structure. Most LBVs with a bar top cork don't come with this much power or intensity. It opens soft and then keeps showing off more and more intensity. The hard edge is pretty hard. This is certainly an interesting bargain, intense and well priced. You might think you have a Vintage Port, if a lighter one. That's the rub—will the mid-palate concentration hold up to its structure? You might also think of putting it away for a year or two. It will be interesting to see how and if this rewards aging.

The 2009 Late Bottled Vintage Port was aged in old tonels (75%) and Pipas (25%). It was "slightly filtered" and bottled in April 2014 with a bar-top cork. It comes in at 100 grams per liter of residual sugar. This is a very nice '09, with ripe fruit and a bit of a pop on the finish. Make no mistake, though, this is about the flavor, even if it is nicely focused. It is a great LBV to drink young as it opens with that lush and luscious hit of bold flavor. It is showing nicely now, delivering its rich flavors to the palate. There is no rush to knock it back, but note that it is not the most concentrated or best structured LBV. It will show at its best when young and fresh, when you might think it is underrated. It should be available at a pretty nice price on the street, too. There were 1,500 cases produced.