2015 Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas
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Tasting notes
Empty bottle 600 g. 25% Touriga Nacional, 75% other grape varieties. Quinta de Vargellas was purchased by Taylor’s over a century ago. The grapes were crushed, not destemmed, macerated and fermented in stone lagares or stainless-steel tanks for three to four days with skins at approximately 25 °C. Fermentation was stopped with grape spirit and the wine was then aged in large oak vats for two years before spending a further 80 months in bottle. Winemaker David Guimaraens. Natural cork. TA 4.08 g/l, pH 3.79, RS 99 g/l. Vegan. Available in up to 200 shops. Concentrated blackish crimson. Curls up over the palate like a cat on your knees. Some very clever tannin management here. Just lovely pruney stuff, with a dry end. Not the sweetest port by any means and still with quite a bit of acidity and a well-hidden tannic spine. VGV (JR)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The 2015 Quinta de Vargellas Vintage Port is a field blend aged for 18 months in used French oak vats. It comes in with 103 grams per liter of residual sugar. This is the first look in bottle, after the original was seen last June as a tank sample in Porto. It is very much a creature of the vintage. Like most 2015s, this is on the lighter side in the mid-palate, but also like most, it is fresh and lifted, refined and graceful. It is the type of wine that doesn't hit you over the head but becomes ever more appealing as it sits in the glass. It's all about finesse and elegance. Suddenly, you realize how much you like it. After some aeration, it adds to its mid-palate refinement the dry, tight and steely edge it had in Porto. Compared to last June, it is oddly more expressive now (I find that they tend to close down after bottling and shipping), opening nicely with some air. It does eventually close down more, but it drinks well again the next day, showing very good balance. When all three of the Fladgate group wines I re-evaluated for this issue (Croft, Fonseca Guimaraens and this) were tasted again the next day, this was plainly the best, beautifully balanced and lingering nicely on the finish. It does everything well.
Blackish crimson with medium rim. Heady and ripe on the nose. Subtle and savoury. Satin-smooth palate entry and a very dry end but really exciting and herbal in the middle. Very much in the Taylor's idiom. Neat and ambitious. (JR)