NV Quinta do Mourao S. Leonardo V Old White 60 Years
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Tasting notes
This perfect wine exhibits an incredible perfume of truffles, apricot jam and caramelized tangerines. Eye-popping, palate-staining stuff, it is like liquefied honey with extraordinary complexity, aromatics yet freshness and delineation. It is neither heavy nor cloying, and boasts a concentrated acidity. The impact on the palate is creamy and gentle rather than lifted, translating into a surgically precise finish that goes on for two minutes or more. This is a classic that can be drunk now or cellared for over 100 years. Mar 2017, FINE+RARE
Critic scores
Average Score
Roy Hersh, For the love of Port
Mark Squires, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The NV Very Old White Port São Leonardo 60 Years is a field blend of grapes like Viosinho, Codega de Larinho, Cerceal and Malvasia. It was bottled in 2019 with a bar-top cork and 197 grams of residual sugar. Very dark in color at this point in the vertical, this doubles down on the Tawny look. Miguel Braga said this was "very strange" and didn't say why. Then, I tasted it. The wine has mint and coconut nuances. This producer's whites already have some eccentricities. This adds another. It was, said Miguel, due to the barrel, as American oak was used. It does this no favors, but it is certainly not obnoxious. It tastes great, in fact, even if very strange. For the age, the concentration is just average. The structure is a bit better. This has its moments, but it will be the most divisive in this flight of old whites.
Color: Medium tawny. If served blind, you'd never guess this was a white Port, though you'd be hard pressed to decide whether it is an "older" looking 20 or a "younger" looking 30 as the color isn't quite deep/red enough to be a 20 nor dark/brown enough to be a 30. Nose: Citrus honey, bourbon vanilla, bourbon whiskey. Very powerful and expressive. The bourbon whiskey on the nose is unmistakable once someone has mentioned it. Palate: Tahitian vanilla, some indistinct and light tropical fruits. Very, very smooth and sweet entry, but enough acidity to eventually tame the sugar. Improved noticeably with time in glass - so much so that I'd recommend decanting for an hour in the future. Finish: Incredibly long and silky. Lingers forever - at least 10 minutes, but that was the longest I could go without taking another sip of something. It isn't quite as stunningly amazing as the "60" Tawny, but it's in that realm. Far beyond anything else you've probably ever tasted unless you're one of the lucky ones who've had access to those mid-1800's Tawnies with fancy names like Scion and Tributa. Score: 97 points. I started out a point lower, but the very noticeable improvement with time in glass made me reconsider. Comparable to the best White Ports I've ever tasted - 1952 Dalva Golden White, 1917 Niepoort - though ultimately just behind them along with the 1971 Dalva Golden White. (Which I prefer over the 1963 Dalva Golden White.) The palate doesn't quite match those first two, though the finish is extraordinary.