2018 TAYLOR'S - 1x600cl

Tasting Notes

• 

  Goedhuis, February 2021,
  Score: 97

  The backbone for this outstanding 2018 wine comes from the famed Quinta de Vargellas way up on the Eastern reaches of the Douro valley heading towards Spain. Dark opaque in colour. A very scented wine with hints of violets, dark berry fruits and a touch of dry fig and liquorice. This is an extraordinarily composed wine, with its intense linear structure exuding a feeling of self-confidence. There is a great sense of power without excess, balancing a sweet intensity with a poised tannic core. A little reserved on the finish, but a wine with extraordinary potential. Top of the class!

• 

  Antonio Galloni, February 2021,
  Score: 97

  It has a classy, aristocratic bouquet, a signature note apropos Taylor’s Vintage: dense black fruit with touches of melted tar, cloves and white pepper. This just builds and builds in the glass. The palate is very harmonious with fine tannins, perfect acidity and very pure with a gentle, almost caressing second half. White pepper interlaces the black fruit with a very precise finish. Pure class. Drinking window: 2032 – 2075 - Neal Martin

• 

  Jancis Robinson, February 2021,
  Score: 17.5++

  Blackish crimson. Neat-looking. Pepper and herbs on the nose – almost makes you want to sneeze. And again the voluptuous fruit almost kids you that you could drink this now but instead there is a massive charge of fine tannin underneath. This is definitely not for sipping now but is a monument for the future. Rather dry and refined as opposed to opulent. (Go to Fonseca Guimaraens for opulence.) Very long, dry and savoury overall within the vintage port canon. Drink 2035-2060. Jancis Robinson

• 

  Wine Spectator, February 2021,
  Score: 96

  Remarkably harmonious already, with a beautiful display of unadulterated blueberry, blackberry and plum sauce flavors that fan out, while anise, ganache and cassis accents fill in. So lush and seductive through the finish, it’s nearly drinkable. But just wait. Best from 2030 through 2050. James Molesworth

• 

More Tasting Notes Hide More Tasting Notes

Producer

Taylor Fladgate

Taylor's is now over 300 years old. It remains a family firm, completely independent, owned still by relations of the original partners. Taylor is accepted by most wine authorities to be the greatest of all port shippers, famous especially for its sublime and long-lived Vintage ports. The finest Port is produced from grapes grown on the steep and rocky slopes of the Upper Douro and its tributaries. Vines have been grown on these remote hillsides since pre-Roman times. In the 17th Century, British traders, cut off from their supplies of Bordeaux by frequent wars with France, took a liking to the full-flavoured, robust wines of Portugal. Under the Methuen Treaty of 1703, England granted lower duties to Portuguese wines than to those of France and Germany, becoming for over a century the principal market for the wines of the Douro Valley. But these wines did not travel well, so the traders added brandy to fortify them against the rigours of their Atlantic sea voyage. Before long pure grape spirit was added during fermentation and Port, as we drink it today, was created. Now in its fourth century, the company is still thriving, with wine quality remaining the firm's only consideration. Taylor's Port was, is, and will continue to be, one of the world's greatest wines.