A special thank you to Tony Carter of Vintage Wine & Port, who coordinated with the producers and organised samples to be provided for us on the night.
My overall impression of the vintages is that there are two distinct styles of ports made from the harvest. Symington wines, Noval and Sogrape (at least the Sandeman and Offley) are deep and rich with sweet fruit and distinct tannins. Fladgate Partnership wines and those from some of the other producers were much more elegant and balanced with high levels of acidity that promise a long and refined future. I loved the Taylor, which was typical of the elegant style and which I found to be very unusual in style for that house.
The wines tasted were:
- Fladgate Partnership:
- Croft
- Fonseca
- Skeffington
- Taylor
- Messias (cask sample)
- Messias Quinta do Cachão (cask sample)
- Niepoort Bioma (cask sample)
- Quinta do Noval
- Sogrape
- Offley
- Sandeman
- Symington Family Estates
- Cockburn
- Dow
- Graham
- Graham Stone Terraces
- Quinta de Roriz
- Quinta do Vesuvio
- Quinta do Vesuvio Capela
- Smith Woodhouse
- Warre
- Valriz