Taylor’s & Fonseca’s Epic 2017 Vintage Ports

*This offer is subject to allocation. You will only be invoiced once your allocation is 100% secure.

Vintage Port is one of the world’s most extreme styles. It’s only made in the best years when the ‘Vintage is Declared’. Taylor’s and Fonseca are two of the very best houses.

Take an array of red varieties with different personalities, throw them in a lagare, grab a couple dozen stompers and get them to tread the grapes, ferment it for a bit then pour in some brandy spirit leaving you with high sugar, tannin, acid, and, alcohol backed by rich fruit.

On face value how could it work? Like all the great wine styles in the world the top echelon, the best houses of Portugal have found a way.

The searing acidity of the best vintage ports and exceptional tannins balances the sweetness of the sugar, alcohol and of course fruit. Despite the strength of these superb wines they have amazing finesse, elegance, and, restraint.

The complexity of these wines offers such intrigue!

Adrian Bridge, Managing Director

Taylor’s “The 2017 displays the fine focused fruit and floral dimension typical of Taylor’s but with the scale and depth which are hallmarks of the year. An exceptional wine showing great promise for the future.”

“Rare wine enthusiasts and collectors will be excited to hear that Taylor’s will release a 2017 Vargellas Vinha Velha Vintage Port. This will be only the eighth Vargellas Vinha Velha ever to be released and quantities are very limited. As usual, it is an extraordinary wine, a showcase of the old vines’ ability to deliver multiple layers and dimensions of aroma.”

Fonseca “We are very pleased to announce the release of a classic Fonseca Vintage from 2017. This follows hard on the heels of the highly acclaimed 2016 but is very distinct in character. The Fonseca 2017 is a wine of impressive scale and depth, with the opulent, complex fruit which is the essence of the house style.”

David Guimaraens, Head Wine Maker

Taylor’s “The thick skinned, beautifully ripened grapes have produced dense, firmly structured wines, quite reserved at this early stage but with impressive depth and reserves of aroma. The 2017 is classic Taylor’s, with fine, linear fruit and the signature floral scent.”

“I think 2017 Vargellas Vinha Velha is a superb example of what the old vineyards are capable of achieving. The wine has all the density and depth of the 2017 vintage but is wonderfully multidimensional, the diversity of vines varieties in the five historic vineyard plots contributing to its aromatic complexity.”

Fonseca “We will remember the 2017 viticultural year for the exceptionally dry conditions throughout the growing and ripening seasons and for the very early harvest. Our picking start date on the Fonseca estates was the earliest for a generation. Not surprisingly, this was also a year of low yields, with the thick-skinned grapes producing dense, deeply coloured musts with high tannin levels. However, the relatively moderate August temperatures meant that ripening was even and the wines perfectly balanced. All the Fonseca properties, in both the Távora and Pinhão valleys, produced excellent wines.”

Commenting on the wine: “The quality of the fruit on the Fonseca 2017 is exceptional. It is dense and powerful, with the classic Fonseca opulence and complexity, but with an attractive minerality. The character of the year has harmonised perfectly with the style of the house.”

The Importance of Blending

At Yarra Yering we made a VP style, the Port Sorts, renamed Pot Sorts for export after naming rights for the use of Port were granted solely to the Portuguese.

Made from the traditional Port varieties, Touriga Nacional provides structural tannin backbone, earthiness, and a core of fruit. Tinta Cão fruit richness. Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) and Tinta Amarela the acid component.

In addition to the above the best known red varieties for Port production include the Touriga Francesa, and, Tinta Barroca but in total there are around thirty types of Port grape. Most of these varieties have relatively small thick-skinned berries which produce the dense concentrated must (grape juice) needed to make Port.

Although they may be planted separately, the varieties are normally harvested and fermented together. Each grape variety contributes its own particular character – such as the intense flavours of woodland fruit, delicate floral scents, exotic spicy notes or the wild resiny aromas of gumcistus – to the nose of the wine. The grape varieties work together like instruments in an orchestra to create a subtle, complex and multi-dimensional harmony.

Making Port

Port is a fortified wine. Fortified wines are made by adding a proportion of grape spirit, or brandy, to the wine at some point during the production process. Port is arguably the greatest of all fortified wines and its paramount expression, Vintage Port, ranks alongside the finest produce of Bordeaux or Burgundy as one of the great iconic wines of the world.

In the case of Port, the addition of the brandy takes place before the wine has finished fermenting. This means that the wine retains some of the natural sweetness of the grape, making it rich, round and smooth on the palate.

One of the fascinating aspects of Port wine is its variety of different styles, each with its own characteristic flavours, from the intense berry fruit flavours of a Reserve or a Late Bottled Vintage to the rich mellowness of an Aged Tawny or the sublime complexity of a Vintage Port.

About Taylor’s & Fonseca

Both owned and made by the Guimarens family under the guidance of David. These are two of the great Port estates.

Taylor’s

In 1692, an important chapter in the history of Port began. Job Bearsley, an English merchant, travelled to Portugal to venture into the wine business, founding the company we now know as Taylor’s. Today, it is one of the oldest and most renowned Port producers, and its Ports are considered amongst the finest in the world.

After each harvest, the tasting panel selects the finest Port wines from the three properties and these are then left to age for two winters in oak vats.

In their second Spring, they are tasted again. If they are judged to be of exceptional quality, the Port wines of the three estates are blended together, Vargellas bringing structure, elegance and complexity to the wine and Terra Feita and Junco body, depth and powerful, concentrated fruit.

At this stage it must be decided whether a Vintage Port is to be ‘declared’. For a declaration to be made, the Vintage Port blend must be of outstanding quality: austere in its youth, with tremendous depth of flavour and massive structure, capable of evolving over years, or decades into that quintessence of great Port, a mature Taylor’s Vintage.

Historically Taylor’s has only declared about three Vintage years per decade.

Fonseca

Throughout the 20th century, the making of Fonseca Vintage Ports was overseen by only four family members, Frank, Dorothy, Bruce and David Guimaraens and this has helped to make Fonseca one of the most stylistically consistent of Vintage Port producers.

The firm’s Vintage Ports are drawn from its own quintas or estates: Cruzeiro and Santo António in the Pinhão Valley, which have contributed to the firm’s Vintage Port blend for 100 years, as well the Távora Valley property of Panascal. Fonseca is unique among Port houses in making three different types of Vintage Port.

Fonseca Vintage Ports are released only when a year produces outstanding wines with long term ageing potential. These classic Vintage Ports are a blend of wines from Cruzeiro, Santo António and Panascal. Cruzeiro contributes concentrated black fruit flavours and firm tannic ‘grip’. Panascal adds an opulent luscious fruitiness and a dense velvety texture. Finally, Santo António brings complexity and vibrancy with its fine scented character and fresh acidity.

Where in the World is the Duoro Valley?

The 2017 Vintage

Taylor’s

Following a wet 2016, the year started with cold and dry winter conditions, with a fifth less rainfall than the thirty-year average. Bud burst occurred relatively early, around 10th March.

The dry conditions continued into Spring and the warm weather in April and May encouraged the rapid growth of the vines.

The first three weeks of June were extremely hot, causing damage to the new bunches in some areas of the Douro. The early cycle continued with véraison around 18th June, one month earlier than the previous year. Apart from some thunderstorms and rainfall early in July, conditions remained dry until the end of September although temperatures for much of the ripening season were moderate.

As expected, the crop ripened very early, showing high sugar levels which led to longer fermentations and very effective colour extraction. Picking started at Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas on 1st September, the earliest in a generation. The last time picking was recorded as having started this early was in 1945 – one of the greatest of the 20th century vintages – when the first fruit was picked on 3rd September.

Temperatures at harvest time were mild, with cool nights, leading to balanced fermentations and excellent extraction. The musts were dense and marked by exceptional depth of colour and impressive phenolics.

Fonseca

Quinta do Panascal was the first Fonseca property to start picking on 6^thSeptember. The two Pinhão Valley estates, Cruzeiro and Santo António, followed on 10^thand 17^th respectively. These were the earliest picking dates in a generation.

The thick-skinned grapes yield very dense musts, with impressive depth of colour.  Although the volume of production was low overall, a high proportion of the wines made were of exceptional quality and their promise was apparent from an early stage.

Drinking Vintage Port

🍷DECANTING – Vintage Port forms a natural deposit in the bottle and should be decanted. Stand the bottle upright a few hours before decanting to allow the sediment to fall to the bottom of the bottle.

🌡SERVING TEMPERATURE – Serve at 16ºC to 18ºC. Vintage Port is best drunk one to two days after opening.

🍑🧀PAIRING SUGGESTIONS – Walnuts, blue veined and other richly flavoured cheeses are excellent accompaniments to Vintage Port; so too are dried fruits such as apricots or figs.

Where in the World does Vintage Port Come From!

*This offer is subject to allocation. You will only be invoiced once your allocation is 100% secure.