Taylors Vintage Port 2009

Inky black with purple rim. A nose of great purity opening on a vigorous note of concentrated black woodland fruit laced with raspberry and plum. Around this dense fruity core, with its attractive vibrancy and minerality, is a fragrant and complex aura of citrus fruit blossom and wild herbal scents of mint and lavender.

Supported by a tight warp of thick sinewy tannins, the palate explodes with concentrated ripe black fruit flavour which surges into a long finish before being gripped in a tight tannic embrace. A wine which manages to combine the massive structure and powerful fruitiness of the 2009 harvest with elegance, poise and finesse.

Taylors are one of the leading port houses, founded by Job Bearsley in 1692. Today the estate is led by Adrian Bridge, with David Guimaraens as head winemaker.

Taylors Vintage Port is one of the great iconic wines. Made only in the very finest years, Vintage Port is blended from the best produce of the Quinta de Vargellas, Quinta de Terra Feita, Quinta do Junco estates.

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.

2009 was a split declaration, with Taylors one of the first to declare. Yields were massively reduced, but late summer heat spikes led to intensely concentrated musts, rich in colour, tannins and sugar. Taylors Vintage Port 2009 is particularly dense and opulent compared to their peers, and arguably the most age-worthy port of the vintage.