Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port 2015
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Deep ruby-black core and narrow red rim with purple highlights. The intense and youthful nose displays very fine, complex red and black berry fruit aromas. Ripe strawberry notes and discreet leafy, herbal scents are suffused in a powerful redolence of dark brambly woodland fruit and blackcurrant jam. As is typical of Taylor Fladgate, the nose is beautifully delineated with very fine, focused fruit.
The palate has impressive density and vigour, with thick, mouth filling tannins providing both structure and body. Luscious berry fruit flavours linger into the long finish. As usual, this LBV shares the pedigree of the great Taylor vintage ports but is made in an approachable style, ready for drinking now by the glass.
Excellent with fully flavoured cheeses, especially blue cheeses such as Stilton or Roquefort. It is also delicious with desserts made with chocolate or berry fruits.
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Wine Spectator
This is on point now, with gently mulled plum, blackberry and black currant fruit flavors forming the core, while bittersweet cocoa, roasted apple wood and briar patch notes underscore the finish. This still has kick too, so no rush. Drink now through 2027.
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Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.