Taylor's

Taylor's, Vintage Port, 2018

Name: Taylor's, Vintage Port
Brand: Taylor's
Price: 429.1 GBP

95/100

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

97/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

all 2011 2016 2018

delivery

in bond

portfolio

Last Few
2018
37.5cl
DP
£35.75
Last Few
2018
12x37.5cl
DP
£429.10

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

A wine of precision, length and intensity, layers of fresh plummy fruit, exotic flowers and dark herbs are contained by schist-mineral infused tannins and a long rich sweetness on the finish. Vargellas, the main component of the blend in 2018, thrived in the year’s vagarious conditions, thanks to its high proportion of old vines and a deep root system which helps to self-moderates yield and quality. At a maximum of 700g grapes per vine, but more often nearer 250g, the 2018 has as much colour and tannin as the 2017, but delivers those qualities in a more flowing, fragrant manner. The Fladgates believe it to have “tremendous ageing potential”, and from our tastings, we agree. It is a spellbinding Port in every sense. The total output is just below that of 2017 but above 2016, at approximately 8k cases. To put that in context, there was less Taylor’s bottled in 2016, 2017 and 2018 combined than there was in the 1985 vintage alone. Quality has never been higher.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

95/100

Mark Squires,

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2018 Vintage Port is a field blend aged for approximately 18 months in very old and large wooden vats. It comes in with 100 grams of residual sugar. This is the third straight declaration (2016, 2017 and this 2018) of a classic Vintage Port for Taylor's. When last seen, this was very good. Let's check in. This is an accessible Taylor's that drinks fairly well now, but it still shows some power. Most of all, though, the fruit is sensational. It's utterly delicious, with the young fruit ripe and rolling over the palate. This is coming along fast, so that with decanting, you might even drink it now, but that would be an error. It is not coming close to showing everything it has. In the back of my head, I am wondering a little about how fast this is coming around, so it seems, but it does so many things well, I can't be churlish right now. Let's see in time if it is going to be a long-haul wine, as I expect Taylor's to be.

drinking window 2026 - 2065

date of review 08/2022

97/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2018 Taylor’s Vintage Port comes predominantly from two vineyards: Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta de Terra Feita. It has a classy, aristocratic bouquet, a signature note apropos Taylor’s Vintage: dense black fruit with touches of melted tar, cloves and white pepper. This just builds and builds in the glass. The palate is very harmonious with fine tannins, perfect acidity and very pure with a gentle, almost caressing second half. White pepper interlaces the black fruit with a very precise finish. Pure class.

drinking window 2032 - 2075

date of review 09/2020

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Specifications

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abv:

20.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.