For The Love Of Port

Ok for the December tasting, I hope we'll get as many people jumping in as possible. It is simple, get a bottle from Taylor or Taylor Fladgate if you live in america, open it and share you comments with us.

I will be having another Taylor this month but am drinking this now so thought I should throw it into the mix.

Taylor's LBV 2000
I have had more bottles of this wine than I would care to count :? Always available in the UK at between £5 and £8 a bottle making it a very good QPR entry level port.

Not decanted, slightly chilled

Colour is very dark. Raspberry nose with a little heat (it is a Taylor after all :? ) - Nice thick mouthfeel, almost chewy with lots of black fruits and a surprising amount of dry tanin for a filtered LBV. Finish is quite long for what this is.

I would advise people who look for good quality cheap port to seek this out and buy all you can when the price is at rock bottom (this bottle cost me £5 against £11 normal retail price).

Subsequent Edit I thought it worth mentioning that I have recently had the T's LBV 1999 and in the past had many other years LBV from Taylor and this is by far the best I have tasted.

Derek

Taylor Vargellas 1978

One of my ex. Japan bottles (see my old TN)

Just decanted, and at first sip very impressive - much more bouquet than I remembered from the last bottle - really quite luscious.

Will score this evening

Tom

Didn't take long to settle down, and still drinking very well this evening.

Light, fresh, fruity, lovely bouquet - perfectly mature. A better bottle than last time I think.

This is not a wine that's going to go on and on, but right now it is delightful.

To score:

For immediate gratification, the lightness is the only demerit - it has no rough edges at all. An easy 8, not quite a 9.

Where's it going? - here I feel that it has reached a peak from which it will slide fairly rapidly. Will it rank a 7 in ten years time? - possibly, but more likely a 6

So my score is:

8-6

Note to me: Two a year

Tom

Taylor Faldgate Quinta de Vargellas 1995 VP : It is the 3rd time I have this since its release. All my 3 bottles where leakers. One was oxydize, one I did ask for refund and this one the best looking of the 3 is pristine! It did not leak, the cork was in perfect condition but probably some liquid was left on top during the corking operation.

This Port is hugely concentrated. Dark opaque red color with slight garnet rim. It literaly sticks to the glass. The nose burst with licorice, black cherries, and classic Taylor's floral notes. It also offers some sweet wood notes, which are mostly unusual for Vintage port as it is aged in old barrels. On the palate this Port delivers its concentration over layers of ripe dark berries, ripe plums and cherries, chewy tannins, long finale on licorice, spices and fresh dates, slightly alcoholic. Impressive, as good as a classic Taylor can be! 17.5/20

Well I'll be, I just hit the December virtual tasting jackpot. I was treated to lunch yesterday in Anchorage (my hometown) at a restaurant that has never been a favorite of mine and even though for three years I lived a block away, I never went. This is somewhat due to the fact that seafood dishes cost 30 dollars which is hard to justify with my freezer full of fresh caught salmon, though really it has always been because of the $12.50 Graham's 6 Grapes and $18 thumbnail glasses of 10 yr tawnies...RIDICULOUS!

In any event I was very happily surprised upon receiving the desert menu and discovered back down to earth (very reasonable) Port prices and even a full slate of Taylor 10, 20, 30, & 40 yr and the whole 100 years of Port listed for only $19.95!!! Yahoo! So I have quite easily convinced a few buddies to join me there for an apperitif before a Hanukah party tomorrow.

Even though I snuck a 10 yr taylor after lunch, I'll reserve TN's for after we compare the whole Taylor lot. I just had to share my excitement.

Scott

Scott,
Very cool, let us know how it goes.

Well...see my post above for how this Taylor tasting came to be. Tasted with a buddy of mine who is a restaurant manager at another place. We gave big props to this restaurant for their Port additions, great pricing, and very fairly sized restaurant pouring. Price for the 100 yrs: $19.95 U.S.

So we were each served our hundred years of Taylor that was delivered on what looked like a fraternity paddle with holes cut out for the tasting glasses and inscribed with Taylor on it....some kind of promotion?

Color: Are these all the same wine? Did we get cheated and served just 4 glasses of 10 yr? All very similar in color with the 10 year the darkest of them all by a bit. The 20, 30, 40 all very similar with an ever so slight darkening with age.

Whew! On the nose they are all different. We weren't cheated.
10 yr: dried fruit and a bit of spice
20yr: dried fruit/raisin, fig
30yr: dried cherries, honey, slight nuttiness
40yr: honey, roasted nuts

On the palate...

10yr: thin and a bit disjointed/not integrated, dry fruit on the palate, a bit hot and a bit acidic, short finish

20yr: more integrated, a slight bit of heat on the back of the tongue/top of throat, medium finish that's not that flavorful for a 20 yr. uneventful for a 20

30yr: Yummy! a very nice and well rounded/balanced tawny. a bit of dried fruit giving way to a nice acidity that allowed the whole mouth to enjoy that quintessential tawny port finish of decent length. a plum raisin finish that gives way to a caramel roasted nut one.....

40yr: Wow...this one dances around the mouth. vibrant everything-fruit/acidity/sugar/alcohol all having a dance party. shows dried fruit and roasted nuts with a decent finish of hony roasted nuts and chocolate something that i can't read in my notes. Glad I have a bottle of this!

2000 Taylor LBV: What the heck, it was also on the menu! Jammy fruit on the nose. Seems like a pretty big wine. Heat! "Breathing Fire" as my tasting partner commented. The heat overshadows everything else. A bit of luscious fruit in there somewhere along with cassis and licorice. Bottle just opened? Wish I had time to let it mellow for a few days to see if the heat would calm down.

Last night I had some friends and my brother over for dinner. The final wine of the night was a 1970 Taylors VP. A good friend who works at a winery up north was down for a couple days and had never seen port tongs used...actually he admitted he had never even heard of them. Alas, my oportunity to have a little fun..so out came the tongs and torch. He loved it and thought it was cooler than sabering champagne.

No formal notes taken as I was also cooking (well sorta) dinner and this was at the end of lots of other wines and a 1988 Niepoort Colheita (b. 1996).

Decanted about 9 hours prior. This got considerably darker with air time and had a wonderful fruity nose. From the moment I opened this and took a small sip I knew the bottle was going to be awsome. Absolutly silky smooth with lots of fruit. the finish was super long and just kept going. This was a perfect bottle and it showed. It seemed younger than its 36 years. 97 points

1987 ~ Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas ~ Vintage Port – This was an off bottle. I have had lots of bottles of Vargellas from my stash and friend’s bottles. This came from my cellar and when I opened the bottle, I knew something was different, the quantity of VA and spirit. I decanted for 8 hours and checked on it early and often, but sadly … this bottle never quite came around even though both the VA and alcohol, did integrate to a degree. Just not to the degree that would have me sipping it over the course of an evening. I tried it again on Friday afternoon and it was still disjointed. This is the first bottle of the ’87 Vargellas which I didn’t find as a really fine VP ~ not rated ~ (12/7/06)

I've been waiting for an excuse to open and try this wine for ages, so this was a combination of my contribution to the monthly virtual tasting and also a Christmas / New Year treat for my wife and myself.

On Decanting
Deep purple colour. Full of fine red sediment (but at least was bottled in glass that could be seen through with a strong light) that was decanted away quite easily. Very little on the nose, in the mouth full of sweet blackcurrant juice with immense acidity and eye-watering tannins. Surprisingly short length.

After 1 hour
The wine had not changed at all from the time of decanting - OK, I confess that I couldn't wait any more to taste it.

After 6 hours
A faint nose of sweet blackcurrants can now be made out, but very weak. Neutral entry into the mouth, then a wall of acidity and puckering tannins - all enclosing a hint of a fruity monster. Swirling in the mouth releases the chocolate coated black cherry juice. The aftertaste is much more pronounced now and lasts much longer, dominated by fruit before fading away to a chocolate finish. Still not a great drink, although I am now intrigued by (i) what this will taste like in 2-3 days and (ii) what this will taste like in 20 years when I open my next one. On the Tom scale this would rate in the bottom quartile of my tasting experiences in the last 12 months, but not right at the bottom so I will award it a 2. However, with the combination of fruit, sugar, acidity and tannins this wine has I believe that it could well be a superb wine in 10-40 years so I will give it a very bizarre rating of 2-6 and 86/100 for immediate drinking pleasure.

After a day and a half
The wine is continuing to improve steadily. The nose is more pronounced to show blueberries and mint. More balanced in the mouth, but still an acidic and tannic monster. Still loads of fruit and beginning to show many layers of complexity. Longer length, but still not as long as should be expected. Best showing so far from this bottle. 88/100 or 4/7 on Tom's scale.

After 2½ days
Getting better and better. Most developed nose so far, blackcurrants and blueberries on the nose. Fruity impact in the mouth, acid now more in balance with the fruit but still incredible tannins in the mouth. Plenty of fruit and complexity gives me the confidence that the wine will soften with age long before the fruit dries out. Aftertaste is longer than previous day, but still not as long as would be expected. A good wine, showing well but still way too young to be at its peak. 90/100 or 6/8.

After 3½ days
Softest nose yet. Alcohol now fully integrated leaving only the blueberry nose. Soft and fruity into the mouth. The overt acidity has gone, leaving waves of fruit and a strong, tannic grip from the soft and ripe tannins in the wine. Probably at its peak. Extremely enjoyable and promises much for the future - although drinking extremely well today. 91/100 or 7/9.

The conclusion that I came to with this wine is that if anyone intends to open one of these little monsters today to see what it is like, try to open it at least a couple of days before you intend to drink it. If you only open it 6 hours ahead of its intended consumption, you will really miss out on a very pleasant experience. This is clearly a great wine, but comes with the price tag of a great wine. I'm really pleased to have tried one, but if I was presented with the choice of having another bottle of VVV 2000 for my cellar or 12 bottles of Vesuvio 1994 then I would not hesitate to choose the dozen Vesuvio 1994.

Happy New Year to all,

Alex


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Here is a short note on the bottle of 1983 Taylor that I opened after Christmas dinner:

Ruby red and good clarity. The nose is somewhat reticent but shows some dried cherry. Very smooth and sweet on the palate. Long cinnamony finish with some plum. 90

TN: Taylor's VP 1983

On Andy Velebil's suggestion I decanted only for two hours. I thought the nose was quite tame and unalcoholic upon opening! That's strange. It had all the red toned spiciness that I expect in Taylor's, a bit of earth, but still seems a bit dulled - I'm sure it will open up in two hours as it doesn't need for the alcohol to integrate much. The palate is perhaps a bit simple for this house, but balanced and very drinkable. The aftertaste is a bit lacking, but it's not as bad a port as some reports have said.

Forward two hours: bugger. Cardboard. The reason for the dullness I noted is that it is corked. We should have drunk it straight away when the cork taint wasn't overtly noticable.

The past year has been a bad year for corked ports. In a big walkabout tasting we had 3 corked ports, and I've now had two at home also. Stelvin for Ports as well?

-O-

To bad about being corked .

I'll accept Stelvin closures for VP when I can taste a wine that has been in bottle with a Stelvin enclosure for 50 years. If it tastes good, I'll accept Stelvin and buy all my port in Stelvin bottles from then on.

Slightly more seriously, does anyone know if the port trade is experimenting with alternative closures for VP? The only alternative I have ever seen on a VP was a half bottle with a crown cork ..... but that was a Tanzanian "port".

Alex

I do not want to elaborate in this thread, but to my knowledge no. For the oubvious reason that cork represent so many jobs in Portugal, you cannot betray the biggest industry of your country so easily.

Alex,

I agree that I prefer corks for long term aging, as history has proven they work quite well (even with a bit of corked bottles now and then). Stelvins just don't have the track record yet. However, I think Stelvin (or other equivilant screw-top) would be so much easier for basic ruby's and tawny's, and maybe tawny's with an indication of age. But given the history of Portugal, and the cork production that occurs there, it will still be some time before we see screw tops on Port bottles.