Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Tightly focused in feel, with racy graphite notes supporting a core of dark currant, blackberry and plum reduction, this is a shade darker in profile than most of its colleagues this vintage, while also showing hints of alder smoke, licorice root and Turkish coffee. On the decidedly dry side in feel, with a lingering hint of walnut husk. To be released in 2027. Best from 2037 through 2055.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Sentinels Vintage Port is a new vintage Port from Taylor's, and this is the first time they have released this wine. It was selected from their best lots in their properties in the Pinhão Valley, the Quintas Terra Feita, Junco, Casa Nova and Eira Velha. It has the traditional grapes from the region, with a significant percentage of old vines planted with mixed varieties, and it fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in large oak vats for two years. They didn't declare their vintage this year and produced this wine and the single quinta from Quinta de Vargellas. It's harmonious and serious, a little shy, certainly not explosive, with a classical profile and the approachable personality of the 2022s, with notes of rockrose, macerated berries and violets, with a soft and textured palate with very fine tannins, and a medium structure. It has 20% alcohol, 4.3 grams of acidity and 102 grams of sugar. It finished quite sweet.
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. To learn more, see our full Port Wine Guide
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.