Fonseca, common Portuguese surname associated with two important but unrelated wine producers in portugal.
Fonseca is a highly respected port shippers, now part of the fladgate partnership. It was founded by the Fonseca and Monteiro families and acquired by a Portuguese gentleman, Manoel Pedro Guimaraens, in 1822. With the exception of the 1955 produced by Dorothy Guimaraens, every single Fonseca vintage port between 1896 and 1991 was made either by Frank Guimaraens or his great-nephew Bruce. Bruce’s son, Australian-trained fifth-generation David Guimaraens, continues the good work. Fonseca Guimaraens, as it was then known, was acquired by Taylor, Fladgate, and Yeatman in 1948 but the two houses maintain separate identities and styles of port within the group now known as the Fladgate Partnerhip under which more detail can be found.
