Description

Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port

Taylor Fladgate were pioneers of the Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) category, developed to satisfy the demand for a high quality ready-to-drink alternative to Vintage Port for everyday consumption. Unlike Vintage Port, which is bottled after only two years in wood and ages in bottle, LBV is bottled after four to six years and is ready to drink when bottled.

Harvest

The weather pattern during the growing and ripening seasons had a decisive effect on the character of the 2016 wines, with their elegance, refinement, crisp acidity and magnificent tannins. Spring was unusually wet, with heavy rain and relatively cool conditions throughout April and May. This had the benefit of restoring ground water levels, depleted by the previous year’s drought, and creating reserves for the hot summer that was to follow. However, the wet spring conditions also resulted in loss of fruit in some areas and a significant reduction in yields. They also delayed the start of the ripening cycle.

Tasting Notes

Broad purple black color with a narrow magenta rim. The character of the 2016 vintage is clearly imprinted on this finely tuned and beautifully balanced LBV. Very bright, intense fruit on the nose, black woodland berry aromas blending with fresher notes of raspberry and plum. Wild herbal notes of resin and balsam lend the wine a lifted, ethereal quality and an additional dimension of complexity. On the palate, the fruit character is denser and more luscious but there is also a fresh grapey quality. The taut, linear tannins of great quality are another hallmark of the 2016 vintage, as is the seam of racy acidity which runs through the palate. The finish is extraordinary long, a seemingly infinite surge of dense berry fruit flavor.

Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port Notes To Your Senses:

• APPEARANCE: Dark purlpe with a magenta rim
• AROMA: Black woodland berries, fresh raspberry and plum
• TASTE: Wild herbs, dense and luscious notes of raspberry, plum  and fresh grapes
• FINISH: Long with lingering notes of dense berries
• ABV: 20%