The 2018 Vintage Porto is mostly a 50/40 blend of Touriga Franca and Touriga Nacional with Tinto C?o and Sous?o filling out the rest of the blend. It comes in with 106 grams of residual sugar. When last seen, this seemed pretty fine, but it was not yet bottled and there were some questions to answer. Let's check in. With some bottle time, this has fleshed out and shows off its concentration to balance superb structure. The structure may be the best feature. That is part of the identity of most great Ports, and this easily meets any such challenge. There is a serious backbone supporting the fruit and a big finish with appropriate grip and length. A day or two after it was opened, it was more vigorous and powerful than ever.
I did have some other questions about balance the first time, though, and the answers are still not entirely clear. This is very ripe. Sometimes I thought it might cross the line to over-ripeness. That's less of a sin with Port, perhaps. Classic in its flavor profile on opening, this eventually shows more baked plums and stewed plums. If there's a question here, it is whether the fruit profile will keep up with the superb structure as it ages. Overall, it shows the ability to age for some decades and develop more complexity. I'd bet on it, but let's be a little conservative just now. There were 19,333 bottles produced.
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