Until recently this wine was understated and closed. Now it has opened into a mammoth wine with so much fruit that it crushes your palate. Deep ruby, with ripe raspberry and cherry aromas, full-bodied, with layers of concentrated, sweet raspberry flavors, tons of tannin and an incredibly long finish. Perhaps as great as the '48. Best from 1998 through 2000. -JS WS
Fonseca is one of the great port lodges, producing the most exotic and most complex port. If Fonseca lacks the sheer weight and power of a Taylor, Dow or Warre, or the opulent sweetness and intensity of a Graham, it excels in its magnificently complex, intense bouquet of plummy, cedary, spicy fruit and long, broad, expansive flavors. With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage ports. When it is young, it often loses out in blind tastings to the heavier, weightier, more tannic wines, but I always find myself upgrading my opinion of Fonseca after it has had 7-10 years of age. The 1977 has developed magnificently in the bottle, and while it clearly needs another decade to reach its summit, it is the best Fonseca since the 1970 and 1963. - Robert Parker