TAYLOR FLADGATE

VINTAGE 2024

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Taylor Fladgate has announced that it will declare a classic Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port from 2024. With the increasing demand for Taylor Fladgate Sentinels Vintage Ports, a small amount will also be released.

Comments are as follows:

Adrian Bridge, Managing Director

“I am pleased to announce our decision to declare the Taylor Fladgate 2024 Vintage release. This is the smallest ever release from Taylor Fladgate. It has been 6 years since we declared a classic Vintage Port for Taylor Fladgate and I am very excited about the exceptional quality. In keeping with the house style, the Taylor Fladgate Vintage 2024 is showing great elegance and poise, firm structure and a powerful complex core of flavours that is very enjoyable now but will change and evolve in the cellar, as necessary.”

David Guimaraens, Head winemaker

“A year with a warm growth period, supported by good water reserves in the soil and balanced by a cooler harvest, has created exceptional wines from our traditional granite lagares including those at Quinta de Vargellas. The continued practice of foot treading and co-fermentation have had a significant impact on the house styles remaining unchanged but gaining more intensity. From a small harvest the resulting Vintage Ports show incredible freshness, complexity, and a wonderful sense of balance.”

NOTES ON THE 2024 VITICULTURAL YEAR AND HARVEST

The winter of 2023/24 brought a welcome return of rainfall for the second consecutive year. Although temperatures were relatively mild, an early budburst on 5^th of March set the season off to an early and promising start. Spring and early summer were cool with occasional useful light rainfalls, arriving at well-spaced intervals that supported healthy vineyard growth.

From July onwards the weather settled into a long, dry period that extended through to the end of harvest. Veraison began on 18^th of July, and the mild summer conditions encouraged a steady, even ripening cycle. As temperatures rose towards the end of July, August provided warm conditions, with consistently high night-time temperatures that put the vines under some stress.

Crucially, at the end of August temperatures moderated, with slightly cooler days and notably cooler nights throughout September. These conditions were ideal for the final stages of ripening, and to achieve full phenolic maturity.

The harvest began with very attractive fruit from varieties such as Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, while Touriga Francesa and Tinta Cão benefited from a little additional time on the vine to achieve full perfection.

The combination of field blends, co-fermentation, have produced ports which are going to be very complex and memorable. In general, the 2024 ports show very good freshness of fruit, lovely flavors, very fine tannins and great acidity.

TASTING NOTES

Taylor Fladgate Vintage 2024

Opaque purple black colour with a fine amethyst meniscus. Characteristically stylish and racy, with a nose of dense blackcurrant and woodland fruit, overlaid with delicate herbal nuances and scents of rose petals and violets. The Taylor Fladgate elegance and understatement conceal the wine’s energy and vigour. On the palate, lean, tightly knit, sinewy tannins, beautifully balanced with vibrant and delineated fruit flavours and herbal notes, produce a stylish wine with the unmistakable Taylor Fladgate combination of stamina and refinement.

9L CASES PRODUCED: 5,000

Taylor Fladgate Sentinels 2024

Deep obsidian purple core with a narrow mulberry rim. The nose bursts with powerful woodland fruit, layered with rich blackcurrant, dark plum and ripe cherries that leap from the glass. Subtle notes of black cherry interwoven with delicate hint of rose petal. The fruit shows elegance and restraint. On the palate, it reveals remarkable freshness and energy with an appealing precision and lift. Lavendar and gentle herbal tones all complement the flavours of damson and plums, building steadily to a long and persistent finish.

9L CASES PRODUCED: 2,700

TAYLOR FLADGATE & YEATMAN

Taylor Fladgate was founded over three centuries ago in 1692 and has been family owned and run throughout its history. Taylor Fladgate is recognized as a benchmark for Vintage Port, its classic Vintages attracting the highest scores and auction prices. Known for their elegance, longevity and distinctive scented character, they are blended from the finest wines of the firm’s own ‘quintas’ or estates. These three famous properties – Vargellas, Terra Feita and Junco – occupy distinct geographic locations and each contributes its own unique character and dimension to the subtle harmony of the classic blend. Additions to the Taylor Fladgate are the vineyards of Quinta de Casa Nova and Quinta da Eira Velha in the Cima Corgo, opposite Quinta do Junco, that have led to the release of the Taylor Fladgate Sentinels Vintage Ports. All these properties represent the best of innovation and tradition, combining the most advanced viticultural practices with traditional foot treading, still unsurpassed as a method for making Vintage Port

QUINTA DO JUNCO

Quinta do Junco is another famous old Pinhão Valley estate which by 1761 had achieved ‘feitoria’ status, then the highest classification for a port vineyard. It was added to the Taylor Fladgate stable in 1997 and contributes to the Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port blend in a small but increasingly important way. Its wines are massive in scale, lending an additional layer of density and structure to the blend. Occupying a steep but open south facing hillside to the west of the Pinhão river, the vineyards of Quinta do Junco are well exposed to both sun and wind, benefiting from long hours of sunlight but avoiding the intense heat of less well aerated locations. A large area of the property was replanted by Taylor Fladgate in vertical rows, a system which has benefits for both wine quality and the environment. The estate also includes 15 hectares of very old vines planted on traditional walled terraces.

QUINTA DE TERRA FEITA

A traditional component of Taylor Fladgate classic Vintage Ports, the wines of Quinta de Terra Feita are full-bodied, powerful and full of rich berry fruit flavor. They provide depth and volume to the blend. Located on the warm lower slopes of the Pinhão Valley, Terra Feita is one of the oldest port estates. Already identified as a source of the finest ports in the 1757 classification of Douro vineyards, Terra Feita has supplied Taylor Fladgate with outstanding wines since the 1890’s. Acquired by Taylor Fladgate in 1974, the property has been the site of pioneering work in batch planting and vineyard landscaping.

QUINTA DE VARGELLAS

The wines of Quinta de Vargellas traditionally form the ‘backbone’ of the Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port blend. This outstanding estate, recognized as one of the world’s finest vineyards, was acquired by Taylor Fladgate in 1893 although its reputation as a source of the finest ports dates back to the 1820’s. Located in the remote eastern reaches of the Douro Valley, Vargellas is known for its elegant, scented wines, with their fine focused fruit and well integrated sinewy tannins. It is also known as a source of one of the rarest and most collectible Vintage Ports of all, Vargellas Vinha Velha, made in very small quantities from the produce of the oldest vines on the estate.

QUINTA DE CASA NOVA

Quinta da Casa Nova, located in Gouvães do Douro, is a historic estate that forms part of the

first demarcation of the Douro region from 1756. The 17-hectare property was acquired by the

company in 1998 (along with the purchase of Quinta do Junco) and boasts a rich vineyard planted in 1997, predominantly with Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, and Tinta Barroca, later complemented with Touriga Francesa.

QUINTA DA EIRA VELHA

Quinta da Eira Velha is one of the oldest and finest estates in the Douro Valley. It is believed

that vines have been cultivated at Eira Velha for over 600 years. The vineyard and buildings

occupy a spectacular location on a southeast-facing slope between 160 and 390 meters above the confluence of the Douro River with its tributary, the Pinhão River. The 50-hectare property was acquired by the company in 2007