A Taylor Port Tasting 1855 + a few other Ports

Mark_Golodetz · February 11, 2011, 2:12am

Sometimes life is good, and when you are tasting really ancient Port, life is very, very good.

Taylor has just introduced something pretty unique to the market place, a tawny from the 1855. This is not just an interesting curiosity, a relic from a year when the Mississippi river got its first bridge, Bordeaux its classification and Michigan a State university. I was lucky enough to taste this wine over two consecutive days, and both times, it was glorious.

Taylor purchased the barrels from the original family; the last of the line, an old lady in her seventies had died. It is a good story; she left a good portion of her money to the Portuguese Social security system, and lawyers reached an agreement with Taylor to buy the wine. Originally it was purchased to add to the 40 year old, but when it was tasted, it was realized they had something really special and unique, and decided to bottle it separately, calling it Scion. The Taylor team had some interesting observations. Compounding the evaporation factor over 150 years, meant that it took 11 bottle to make one bottle of this.

The color is dark brown, hints of red, but also acid green (at first color is lost to the barrel, but when the wine is very old, it is reabsorbed.) The nose is incredibly concentrated, slightly volatile but so complex. Plums, Christmas pudding, orange peel, anise, coffee, mushrooms and earth. One of the most complete noses I have ever smelled.

On the palate, it is thick, and the acidity is quite marked. But so powerful and concentrated is the wine, that it needs the high acidity to keep it from cloying the palate. It is not particularly sweet; the power, concentration and complexity seem to be incapable of stopping when the wine is swallowed, and it was a good two minutes before the finish began to fade.
One of those wines that goes beyond my ability to score, so must have a perfect score.
A few other wines:

Taylor Tawny Ports

10 Year old is pleasant, easy going, perhaps a little brash.
20 Year old is really pretty, plenty of fruit, quite complex.
30 year old A little difficult to see the point of this; really between and betwixt, and frankly I prefer the far less expensive 20 year old.
40 year old is delicate and complex, and really a lovely wine.

Taylor Vintage.

1991 Quinta do Vargellas
A great Vargellas, and had 1992 not rolled along, it would have made a great vintage. Lovely to drink now, round, friendly and soft.

1992 Vintage
According to Adrian Bridge of Taylor, it is just emerging from its adolescence Brilliant nose, and a fantastic wine on the palate, at least two thirds in. Began to break up, so it has not fully emerged.
2000
The tannins were quite brutal here. Plenty of good raw materials, but this is very long term.
2003
Rich, quite fat, ripe tannins. Very friendly. Not sure it has the usual Taylor precision.
2007
I wasn’t the only one to love this. Just beating out the 1992 as my favorite vintage Port. I admit to bias; I helped tread the grapes, dancing the Funky Chicken with a mustachioed female called George. Loved the wine, and hope I will be around to drink when fully mature.

David_Spriggs · February 11, 2011, 5:07am

Wow! Super notes! I’m glad all the VPs were showing well (ok… the 2000 is a brute right now). You were very lucky to have tasted the Scion. I’m jealous!

Byron_Hewett · February 12, 2011, 3:08am

Mark,

Thanks for the notes. I totally agree with you regarding the 20 and 30 year old tawny. I have always felt the 20 year old and the 40 yo outshone the 30 yo. What is the price tag on the Scion?

I visited Taylor in 2002. My son was born in 1992 so I bought him several bottles of '92 VP.

Thanks again,

Byron

John_Danza · February 12, 2011, 3:14am

Mark Golodetz:

The color is dark brown, hints of red, but also acid green (at first color is lost to the barrel, but when the wine is very old, it is reabsorbed.) The nose is incredibly concentrated, slightly volatile but so complex. Plums, Christmas pudding, orange peel, anise, coffee, mushrooms and earth. One of the most complete noses I have ever smelled.

On the palate, it is thick, and the acidity is quite marked. But so powerful and concentrated is the wine, that it needs the high acidity to keep it from cloying the palate. It is not particularly sweet; the power, concentration and complexity seem to be incapable of stopping when the wine is swallowed, and it was a good two minutes before the finish began to fade.
One of those wines that goes beyond my ability to score, so must have a perfect score.

From your description, it sounds more like a Madeira than a tawny port. It’s the green color and the acidity that’s got me thinking. Is this wine available commercially?

Eric_Ifune · February 12, 2011, 4:21am

I believe the Scion was available only preorder from a few retailers. Might be a few bottles left in the UK. Roy Hersh has the skinny on this, as usual!

AAgrawal · February 12, 2011, 4:29am

I think I read in a news article somewhere that there are about 1,400 bottles, of which 200 are imported into the U.S. Price is roughly $3200 per bottle.

Mark_Golodetz · February 12, 2011, 1:28pm

$3200 retail is correct. The packaging is pretty amazing; wooden box and a specially designed decanter. I think the price tag is relatively aggressive, but I suppose there are few opportunities to get a wine that is pre phylloxera, and that old.

Mark_Golodetz · February 12, 2011, 1:32pm

John Danza:

Mark Golodetz:

The color is dark brown, hints of red, but also acid green (at first color is lost to the barrel, but when the wine is very old, it is reabsorbed.) The nose is incredibly concentrated, slightly volatile but so complex. Plums, Christmas pudding, orange peel, anise, coffee, mushrooms and earth. One of the most complete noses I have ever smelled.

On the palate, it is thick, and the acidity is quite marked. But so powerful and concentrated is the wine, that it needs the high acidity to keep it from cloying the palate. It is not particularly sweet; the power, concentration and complexity seem to be incapable of stopping when the wine is swallowed, and it was a good two minutes before the finish began to fade.
One of those wines that goes beyond my ability to score, so must have a perfect score.

From your description, it sounds more like a Madeira than a tawny port. It’s the green color and the acidity that’s got me thinking. Is this wine available commercially?

John, I am not sure I would have blind guessed it as a Port, but there was a little more fruit, and less volatility than any Madeira I have tasted that had this much age.

G_Bienstock · February 12, 2011, 5:03pm

In 2000 when I sold Ramos Pinto I attended a vertical presented by the winerey. They poured their first vintage, the 1880. It came across as an amazing tawny and it is still one of the top Ports that I have had.