Taylor Fladgate Quinta de Vargellas 2015
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Most often served after a meal, alone or with cheese, nuts, dried fruits or fine dark chocolate.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Quinta de Vargellas Vintage Port comes in with 99 grams per liter of residual sugar. This single-quinta Porto was a tank sample when tasted, although the final blend and out of barrel. This has fine precision and a tight, steely edge. It opened with too little concentration, but it kept putting on weight in the glass, showing enough stuffing to balance the steadily increasing power. Fresh and clean, with a fruity finish typical of the vintage, this eventually tightened to the point where the tannins popped up early and often, overwhelming the fruity beginning. This is probably the most backward of the 2015s from the Fladgate Partnership this issue. It might well wind up being the best—although that is not my early bet (see the Fonseca Guimaraens). That also means that it was certainly one of the most difficult to evaluate at the moment. Certainly, it may have the most potential to improve in the cellar. In short, this will need more time, but it looks promising given its impressive structure. Prepare to hold this awhile. It is fashionable these days to dive into Port very young, but the 15 years indicated may not be nearly enough.
Range: 93-95 -
Wine Enthusiast
This wine is ripe with tannins and powerful with ripe fruit. A solid character gives it density. The tannins and the richness of the wine are ripe and concentrated with fruit. Drink from 2026.
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Wine Spectator
Fleshy and inviting in feel, with enticing warm plum and blackberry cobbler notes backed by cocoa, black licorice and fruitcake flavors. Lengthy and refined finish.
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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.
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.