1987 Taylor Fladgate Quinta de Vargellas Vintage Port

[Al B.]

Quinta da Vargellas 1987

I thought I would take the opportunity of this month's virtual tasting to open a bottle of this wine to appreciate at first hand the reputation that this particular vintage is developing on this website. My tasting note and then thoughts are posted below:

Decanted for 9 hours before note taken.

Deep, cherry red colour holding right into the rim. Slightly dusty nose over sweet cherry juice, surprisingly closed after so long in the decanter. A little empty on the entry but then sweet, ripe fruit comes through, wrapped around a hugely acidic core. Slurping just releases more fruit and makes it almost impossible not to swallow. The wine becomes thicker in the mouth as the fruit and acidity makes the mouth water. The aftertaste takes a while to start but comes through as a slightly bitter, cherry-pip type flavour that never really catches focus.

This VP is still young and brooding massively. It should be left for at least another 5-10 years before being visited again. On current form, this is drinking less well than the 1988 and would only rate around the average on Tom's scale, but promises much more for the future - 5/7 or 90/100.

I was a little disappointed by this wine. For drinking today, I would absolutely choose the 1988 Vargellas over the 1987 although in 20-30 years I might feel differently. It showed hints of how it will become a great VP, but it is not yet delivering and is not yet well in balance. If I had to, I would suggest that this wine is still a little closed up, even 20 years after the harvest. With luck, prolonged air time will improve the wine for my next glass tonight.

Alex

I came back to the Vargellas 1987 a day after my last tasting note. This has improved significantly. The colour has not changed much, if at all but the nose has opened up a little and now offers a lovely plum and blackberry scent. In the mouth the initial impact is of soft, ripe blackberries around an acid core. The flavours become more complex when mixed with air in the mouth and show a nice wood tone and some good, soft tannins. The aftertaste is also much improved and now lasts a good time with a very enjoyable chocolate core.

The morale of the story for me is - don't drink this the same day you decant. I would now rate this as above average for drinking now and clearly a port that's going to be much better in 10 years. 6/7 or 91/100.

Alex

This tasting note is one of several related tasting notes. Click [here] to see the original note in context.