Taylor’s is the only Port wine shipper to remain
completely independent throughout its 310 year history.
It is still a family run company producing the highest
quality Port wines that continue to fetch a premium
at auction. Taylor’s is distributed in over
54 countries around the world.
Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman has won prestigious
awards for their declared vintages. Recently the Taylor
1992 was awarded a perfect 100 points from Robert
Parker. The 1994 vintage also received 100 points
and the Top Wine of the World award from the Wine
Spectator.
The distinctive character of Port does not come only
from its method of production. Like that of every
great classic wine, it is also born of an association
of climate, soil and grape variety unique in the world.
Separated from the sea by the Marão mountains
and protected from the rainy winds of the Atlantic,
the Douro valley has a climate of baking, dry summers
and severe winters. It is a land of austere beauty.
The vineyards are dizzyingly steep: the vines must
be planted on tiers of walled terraces, towering one
above the other like the steps of the Pyramids, the
product of centuries of Herculean labour. To make
new terraces in this rocky terrain, dynamite is often
needed to blast away great outcrops of schist, the
slate-like stone which forms the bedrock of the Douro's
best vineyard soils. The vine roots can dive 40ft
down through rock fissures in search of water, draining
the very essence of the soil into every grape.
The Douro boasts a wealth of traditional grape varieties.
Among the finest are the heavily-scented Tourigas-Touriga
Nacional and Touriga Francesa-producing wine of enormous
scale and concentration; the Tinta Roriz with its
firm tannins and distinctive cedary nose; the supple,
flowery Tinta Barroca; and the Tinta Cão, one
of the oldest varieties cultivated in the Douro valley.
Taylor's were one of the earliest shippers to acquire
vineyards to produce the wine themselves, rather than
merely buying from wine-makers and then maturing it.
The famous Quinta de Vargellas, purchased between
1893 and 1896, is the jewel in the Taylor's crown.
This magnificent 164-hectare estate, in the wildest,
highest country of the Douro, is the source of much
of the wine for Taylor's vintage Port. Set in a lovely
bowl of vineyards sloping steeply down to the river,
its north-facing site helps to moderate the fierce
summer heat. Taylor's later bought another outstanding
estate, Quinta de Terra Feita, occupying a spectacular
site on the slopes of the Pinhão valley. Taylor's
has extensively replanted this ancient property, bringing
out the full potential of its 116 hectares of vineyard
under vine which have supplied the firm with superb
Ports for over a century.
