1964 | Taylor’s | Fladgate Very Old Single Harvest Port

Detailed Description

Properly old gold in color, this is a wine from a single year, aged in casks. It’s poised between amazing fruit and a wonderful velvet texture that is shot through with acidity. A feeling of lightness comes from the acidity that gives great freshness as well as complex flavors.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: I allowed my glass of 1964 Taylor’s Very Old Single Harvest Port a couple of hours to open up in the glass, monitoring its evolution along the way. It is not a shy or retiring Port. Clear mahogany in color with a slight green tinge on the rim, the nose races out of the blocks like a young terrier let free in the garden, with intense aromas of grilled walnut, smoke, brown sugar, hints of caramel and a fug of alcohol that ebbs with time. The palate is smooth and honeyed on the entry, a very seductive Port wine, quite sumptuous in style, but with enough volatile lift to maintain fieriness toward the viscous finish. I speculate that had the 1963s not been so prodigious, Taylor Fladgate would have elected to follow their 1960 declaration with a 1964. That is all in the past. It is a delicious Vintage Port firing on all cylinders, ready to drink and enjoy now rather than cellar.

• Wine Spectator: Smooth, spicy and still fresh, with a subtly unfolding array of candied ginger, dried apple, citrus zest and marzipan flavors supported by bright acidity. Finishes with hints of anise and juniper.

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.