1980 Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port

[Jay Powers]

1980 Taylors: Decanted cleanly from a solid cork, lots of sediment. Translucent ruby color reminiscent of an older vintage.

First sip (decanted 10 minutes): Not much aroma and a little rough with some heat. My initial impression is age like a 1970 but not as smooth.

Decanted 2 hours: Much of the roughness is gone but still noticeable. Still some heat and the color is slightly darker.

24 hours: In this particular case, this wine was much better at 2 hours than 24 hours. The heat seems to have come back with a vengeance both on the nose and on the pallet.

Final assessment: Will this wine be in the top half of what I’m likely to have this year, no….but I would be willing to go above the bottom quartile. I do not think it will benefit from more age and is probably on the downward trend. As far as value, for me I would get much more satisfaction out of an 85 Dow or Warres for approximately the same price.

Tom scale: 4-3

Jay

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