Taylor is pleased to announce that it has declared the 2009 vintage.
Commenting on the declaration, Taylor’s CEO Adrian Bridge said: ‘I am delighted to announce our decision to release a declared vintage from 2009. The year has produced wines of massive scale, not unlike the iconic vintage ports of the early twentieth century. They are wines built to last.’
The last decade has been unusually prolific in great years for classic vintage port. The Taylor 2009 follows a series of three outstanding vintages, 2000, 2003 and 2007. Adrian Bridge remarked: ‘The 2009 is the fourth declaration in a decade. In over three centuries of Taylor’s history, a sequence of great vintages like this has been very rare.’ He added, ‘It is also remarkable that these four years have produced wines so different from one another but all unmistakably Taylor in style’.
2009 will be remembered in the Douro Valley for its dry summer, low production and very concentrated juice. Head winemaker David Guimaraens commented: ‘The low yields produced wines with enormous density of colour and excellent tannic grip. However they also display good acidity and wonderfully complex fruit.'
The Taylor 2009 blend is based on the wines of Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta de Terra Feita. Since 2000, the firm’s third property, Quinta do Junco, has also made a small contribution to the blend and has done so again in 2009. Quantities are smaller than those of the three preceding classic vintages.
Taylor’s will also bottle a small amount of Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha 2009 Vintage Port. According to Adrian Bridge: ‘We will be making a very limited release of Vargellas Vinha Velha 2009 which will be good news for vintage port enthusiasts and collectors of rare wines.’ The rare Vinha Velha Vintage Ports are made in very small quantities from a selection of grapes from the very oldest vines at Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas and seldom represent more than 2% of the production of the property.