Taylor is to release 2008 single quinta Vintage Ports from its flagship estates of Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta de Terra Feita. Announcing the release, Managing Director Adrian Bridge commented: "These exceptional Vargellas and Terra Feita single estate Vintage Ports are a superb showcase of what these two historic properties are able to achieve. The 2008 harvest has produced wines with impressive density and concentration but this has not masked the distinctive character of each estate.
As usual with single quinta vintages, these wines promise to deliver remarkable value both to consumer and collector.” Technical Director and Wine Maker David Guimaraens added: "The weather at harvest time was critical to the success of the 2008 wines. I cannot recall such perfect picking conditions for many years. The grapes coming into the winery just kept getting better and better.” The 2008 Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta de Terra Feita vintage ports will be available in selected markets in the Autumn of this year.
Quinta de Vargellas Vintage 2008
Inky black with a vivid purple rim. Compact and stylish nose, with intense aromas of blackcurrant and wild berries tightly wrapped around a dark nucleus of liquorice and treacle. This dense backdrop is overlaid with subtle notes of tea, rose petal, thyme and exotic wood with an attractive grapey freshness emerging as the nose develops. As usual with Vargellas the nose shows exceptional purity and resolution but is seductive in its complexity. On the palate the tannins are beautifully integrated and deceptively subtle but their firm sinews become apparent on the long finish which is packed with intense black berry fruit flavour. Quinta de Terra Feita Vintage 2008
Inky purple black centre with a narrow violet rim. From the first moment the nose is drawn into a complex and powerful vortex of dense creamy blackberry, raspberry and cassis aromas fused with subtle notes of gumcistus and mint. This is classic Vintage Port in its extraordinary quality of fruit, combining power with refinement and complexity. The thickly textured tannins provide body and structure and the palate is brimming with fine concentrated black fruit flavour which flows over into the long finish. An outstanding Terra Feita displaying the character of the estate with great purity.