Wine Reviews
Singed black sesame, hazelnut, buckwheat, dried blood orange and walnut husk notes merge, starting dry but unfolding steadily to offer succulence and underlying sweetness as date, peanut brittle and salted caramel accents fill in through the finish. A fully mature wine, with ample energy and persistence, which makes this pretty special.
Taylor Fladgate is selling a 1976 Very Old Single Harvest Tawny Port, which is a Tawny from a single harvest, in the category known as Colheita. It was aged for a long time in oak casks, from the harvest until bottling, and slowly oxidized through the decades, almost half a century, in the cellars of Vilanova de Gaia. It has a deep amber color and a powerful and nuanced nose, with notes of brandy and hints of an Oloroso Sherry. It’s silky and has great balance between sweetness and acidity (including volatile acidity, which always plays a role in these very old wines), and it’s elegant, long and persistent. It has 20% alcohol, 5.8 grams of acidity and 139 grams of sugar, reflecting concentration from evaporation and old age but brilliantly balanced. 5,000 bottles produced. The back label mentions it was bottled in 2025.
If the bottle of 10-year-old Tawny was odd, then the NV 20-Year-Old Tawny Port is hitting it on all cylinders. It is open, expressive, aromatic and nuanced, with clarity and precision. The back label didn’t show the bottling year, but I suspect it must have been quite recent. This wine is made from different harvests blended with an average of 20 years of aging in oak casks. It has 20% alcohol and 120 grams of residual sugar, reflecting the slightly sweeter style that is typical of Taylor’s.
The 2022 Sentinels Vintage Port is a new vintage Port from Taylor’s, and this is the first time they have released this wine. It was selected from their best lots in their properties in the Pinhão Valley, the Quintas Terra Feita, Junco, Casa Nova and Eira Velha. It has the traditional grapes from the region, with a significant percentage of old vines planted with mixed varieties, and it fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in large oak vats for two years. They didn’t declare their vintage this year and produced this wine and the single quinta from Quinta de Vargellas. It’s harmonious and serious, a little shy, certainly not explosive, with a classical profile and the approachable personality of the 2022s, with notes of rockrose, macerated berries and violets, with a soft and textured palate with very fine tannins, and a medium structure. It has 20% alcohol, 4.3 grams of acidity and 102 grams of sugar. It finished quite sweet. 54,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in 2024.
A very floral nose, showing lots of dried violets and lavender to the sweet blueberries and iodine. Full-bodied and really silky, with an abundance of fine, dusty tannins melting on the palate. Rich, flavorful and a touch open. Approachable fairly early but will age well in the next two to three decades.
