A conversation between David Guimaraens and Austin Beeman about Fonseca Bin 27, a young and fruity port wine.
Guimaraens describes the wine as full-bodied and rich, with a concentration of black currant fruit. He explains that the grapes used to make the port come from the Douro Valley, which has a hot mountain climate that contributes to the intensity of the fruit. The wine has plenty of tannins, making it a good pairing with chocolate desserts.
Beeman comments on the aroma of cherries and raspberries, and Guimaraens attributes this to the grape varieties used in port production. They both agree that the wine is pure, bright, and joyful in its fruitiness. Guimaraens describes Fonseca as a house known for its bubbly, rich, and intense wines, and Bin 27 is no exception.
They discuss how the winemaking process is crucial in preserving the fruitiness of the wine while extracting color and structure.
Overall, they find the wine to be enjoyable and fun.
THIS IS BONUS CONTENT RELATED TO EPISODE 96 OF UNDERSTANDING WINE WITH AUSTIN BEEMAN
SPECIAL THANKS:
THE FLADGATE PARTNERSHIP - FONSECA - WOW PORTO
Adrian Bridge
David Guimaraens
Maria Delamain
Ana Margarida Morgado
Jose Sa
Tori Katz
Kyrsten Cazas
Charisse Smalls
Amanda Hathaway
Brianne Cohen
TRANSCRIPT:
Note: Transcript was created by a third party service and I’ve endeavored to clean up the spelling of ‘wine words’ and non-english words. Any persistent errors are mine alone.
Or, watch the video. It is awesome.
David Guimaraens:
So we're now tasting Fonseca Bin 27, the Fonseca Bin 27, and the Fonseca Bin 27 is a full-bodied, rich, fruity port. It is young, so we're talking about a two-and-a-half year old port where you get the great expression of the youth, of the grape, this black current fruit, and it's exactly the Douro Valley, this region of hot mountain climate, which produces the grapes with a concentration and the richness to get all of this intensity of fruit but also then on the palette, you got the richness and the weight on the palate. And being a young port, it still has plenty of tannin, and it is that tannin, that fruit, which makes it combine so well anything which is chocolate. You can imagine any chocolate desserts, a chocolate mousse, a chocolate cake. It's very intense, but then the fruitiness and the tannin in Bin 27 balances and cleanses your palate; just make you want to go back for another bite.
Austin Beeman:
It smells like when you have a lot of cherries and raspberries and things and you left them out on the counter and they're warming in the sun. Those aromas coming off that, that almost on the decadent edge of fruit sweetness is coming through on the nose so much.
David Guimaraens:
And that's exactly what the extraordinary characteristics of Douro Valley, that mixture of grape varieties that we use to make port, it brings out all of these different fruit flavors and richness of fruit.
Austin Beeman:
Now, what I've always liked about that is how pure and bright and joyful the quality of the fruit is on that.
David Guimaraens:
Yeah.
Austin Beeman:
It's dark and it's rich but it's warm and happy, and it's not serious. Really just warm and happy as a flavor, so I love it.
David Guimaraens:
And Fonseca's very characterized as a house, which is very bubbly, rich and intense and fun, and Bin 27 is that.
Austin Beeman:
Yes.
David Guimaraens:
You've got to have that precision, that quality, but you want it to be out there in your face rich, and that's what Bin 27 is about and that's why you'll get most restaurants in the North America have got Fonseca Bin 27 to be served by the glass at the end of the meal, and what a great way to accompany your dessert or your cheese.
Austin Beeman:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I completely agree. That's very, very nice.
David Guimaraens:
But yes, this freshness of fruit, look, to do that, it's all about having good quality grapes to work with. And then as a winemaker, it's taking really good grapes, really rich, really concentrated, then using a wine-making technique or fermentation to bring out all of that structure, but not losing your fruit.
Austin Beeman:
Yeah.
David Guimaraens:
And that is more of a challenge than people think because extracting color from your grapes is not an easy thing in a fermentation, and if you overwork it, then you'll extract the color but you lose your freshness, and that's why the fermentation method that I develop in my lifetime, of assimilating the foot treading with these mechanical treaders, was so important to ensure the quality of ports like Bin 27.
Austin Beeman:
Yeah. Gorgeous. Very fun.
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FTC Compliance: I have no professional relationship with Fonseca or the Fladgate Partnership other than selling their wines during my time as a retail buyer. This is not sponsored. See more.
