1963 | Taylor’s | Fladgate Vintage Port

Detailed Description

The 1963 Taylor’s Vintage Port is lucid in colour, very well defined with wild strawberry, Clementine, leather and tobacco scents, one of the few to contain a floral element.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: This house must certainly be the Latour of Portugal. Their ports are remarkably backward yet still impressive when young. Of all the vintage ports, those of Taylor need the longest time to mature and even when fully mature seem to have an inner strength and firmness that keep them going for decades. Their tawnys are also among the very best, though somewhat expensive. The 1963 is quite fabulous yet still seemingly capable of developing for another decade or more.

• James Suckling: A big wine with superb balance, a shining example of this exuberantly fruity vintage. Deep ruby, with violets and coffee on the nose, full-bodied, with dried cherry flavors and plenty of tannin, balanced and long on the finish.

Producer Information

Taylor’s is one of the most important Port houses in the Douro region of northern Portugal. It is notable for its wide range of traditional ports, from vintage expressions to tawny ports of various ages, and also for its creation of the Late Bottled Vintage, or LBV, style. The genesis of the company began 1692 when English wine merchant Job Bearsley arrived in Portugal, although it would be many years and owners before it came to be known as Taylor’s. Bearsley initially traded in red Portuguese wine from the northwest of the country, and in 1744, under his grandson Bartholomew, the company became the first British wine merchant to buy a property in the Douro. Taylor’s changed hands often during the 19th and 20th Centuries, coming under control of both Joseph Taylor and John Fladgate, who gave the company its names. It survived to rebuild after phylloxera ravaged vineyards across Europe at the end of the 19th Century. It came to the Yeatman family at the beginning of the 20th Century, and they have been the proprietors since. In the 1960s, Alistair Robertson took the reins and began to focus on finding new markets in Asia and North America, rather than just relying on Britain. He also created the first Late Bottled Vintage port, which has since become a mainstay of the industry. It was first released with the 1970 vintage and was an instant success.