1934 Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Colheita- Portugal, Douro, Porto (2/26/2015)
Bottled in 1976 or 1977 (the label listed both, so not exactly sure which). Graciously brought by a fellow Port lover to enjoy with a wonderful seared Ahi tuna lunch. The color was a light tan with a yellow and green ting on the edges, and no haze that older Colheita’s often get. The nose was very profound honeysuckle, citrus, butterscotch, and V.A., which was hard to stop smelling. The palate had the same honeysuckle and citrus, with caramel, maple syrup, and wood varnish. An amazingly fresh nose and palate given how long ago this was bottled. The finish was slightly clipped, but was getting longer with more air time in the glass. I can’t recall ever having this before and a real treat.
94 Points (94 pts.)
No mention of “Harvest” or “Single Vintage” or “Colheita” on the label. Just “Vinho do Porto” and nothing about wood age. I guess you had to know about bottling dates even back then.
This is interesting Andy. I know that 1934 and 1935 was somewhat of a split vintage, with some declaring one or the other. I know Taylor declared 1935 and Fonseca declared 1934. I think the two houses were together at that point, so it’s interesting that they would declare differently. It’s also interesting that Taylor would decide to use the wine from 1934 for a colheita instead of a single vineyard vintage port, but I’m not sure how much of the single vineyard vintage bottling happened back then.
Taylor’s and Fonseca Guimaraens were run as two separate companies and had their own staffs until the late 1960’s (1967 IIRC off the top of my head) when Allistar Robertson consolidated them to save them from financial trouble. Both released varying types of Ports back then, on occasion.
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