Winemaking:Taylor’s Vintage Port is one of the world’s great iconic wines. Made only in the very finest years – known as ‘declared’ vintages – Vintage Ports are blended from the best produce of the firm’s own estates of Quinta de Vargellas, Quinta de Terra Feita and more recently, Quinta do Junco. After each harvest, the tasting panel selects the finest Port wines from the three properties and these are then left to age for two winters in oak vats. In their second Spring, they are tasted again. If they are judged to be of exceptional quality, the Port wines of the three estates are blended together, Vargellas bringing structure, elegance and complexity to the wine and Terra Feita and Junco body, depth and powerful, concentrated fruit. At this stage it must be decided whether a Vintage Port is to be ‘declared’. For a declaration to be made, the Vintage Port blend must be of outstanding quality: austere in its youth, with tremendous depth of flavour and massive structure, capable of evolving over years, or decades into that quintessence of great Port, a mature Taylor’s Vintage. Historically Taylor’s has only declared about three Vintage years per decade. Taylor’s Vintage Ports are renowned for their massive structure and aromatic power, tempered by a characteristic understatement and restraint. The ultimate collector’s Port wines, Vintage Ports will age for decades in the cellar, slowly developing the elegance and harmony which are the hallmarks of a mature Taylor’s Vintage Port.
Grape Varieties:
Old Vines
Tasting Notes:
Impenetrable blue-black colour with narrow purple rim. Intricate and finely constituted, the nose displays classic Taylor elegance and poise. A dense core of pure complex fruit, redolent of blackberry and cassis, is enveloped in a fragrant aura of violets. Resiny garrigue scents and subtle notes of of liquorice and black coffee emerge as the nose develops. On the palate, taut, linear tannins provide a solid framework. Fine berry fruit flavours linger into the finish where the tannins re-emerge to provide an attractive touch of austerity. This is textbook Taylor’s, the fine aromas and distinctive floral character of Vargellas blending with the dense dark woodland fruit and herbal scents of Terra Feita to produce a stylish wine with the unmistakeable Taylor combination of stamina and refinement.
Store and Serve Advices:
Store the bottle horizontally in a dark place with constant temperature, ideally between 12ºC and 15ºC.
Food Pairing:
Vintage Ports are after meal drinks. Take them with cheese like Stilton or Gorgonzola. But you can also incorporate them into a meal, combining for instance a Steak au Poivre with a young Vintage.
Reviews and Awards:
. 98 points in Robert Parker;
. 97 points in Wine Spectator Magazine;
. 97 points in Roy Hersh;
. 97 points in Wine Enthusiast Magazine;
. 97 points in Wine & Spirits Magazine;
. 96 points in James Suckling;
. 96 points in Stephen Tanzer;
. 95 points in CellarTracker;
. 19,5 points in Jancis Robinson.
No reward points for this product.
