Two Ports of call

Adrian Bridge

On Monday evening 100 members and their guests were treated to a wonderful tasting of Fonseca and Taylor’s Ports, presented by the MD of The Fladgate Partnership Adrian Bridge, aided and abetted by The Society’s Port buyer Mark Buckenham. Adrian spoke with great enthusiasm and clarity, also fielding the numerous questions, many coming from interesting angles, with aplomb. This 319-year-old company is certainly being expertly  steered through the 21st century with Adrian at the helm.

Five wines from each house were tasted, in pairs. As an experiment 140 character tasting notes were tweeted as we tasted (which engendered both positive and negative feedback with some enjoying the interaction and joining in the banter, while others felt bombarded by too many tweets – we’re still learning when it comes to social media).

The 140 (max) character notes, complete with stylistic errors, went as follows. Caveat: These are of course my own personal, spur-of-the-moment, tasting notes.

Fonseca ’70 Genteel butterscotch, smooth and very easy to drink.

Taylor ’70 More heat of alcohol, more structure than Fonseca. Still beautifully mellow. Leather, tobacco and soft red apple skins?

(NB, both of the above will be available on our November Fine Wine List, priced at £135 per bottle)

Fonseca ’83 Lovely lifted, slightly leafy, perfume. Fresh, sweet red fruit and liquorice on palate.

Taylor ’85  savoury in character, edgy, nervy, bitter orange prevalent. Prunes and dates on finish.

Fonseca Guimaraens ’98 Rich violet nose. Smells like teen spirit! Rich chunky smooth black fruit. Pontefract cakes.

Taylor Vargellas ’01 table wine, rather than fortified, nose – light, structured, delicate berries and chammy leather.

Fonseca 2000 – Rubenesque, reclining, voluptuous, inviting, bursting with blackberries. Ripe, ripe, smooth tannins

Taylor 2000 – upright, edgy, mineral, damson, licorice, structured, delicious, tannins need to soften. Tight (the Port, not me!)

09s have a light gunpowder tea aroma about them. Mineral edge. Fonseca immediately softer on the nose than the Taylor.

Both 2009s rich on palate, Fonseca still showing more velvety texture. Deeper. Spirit hidden by bags of fruit. Taylor has finesse.

The 2009s can be found in our Port opening offer.

It was an excellent evening drinking some glorious Port wine. If anyone else would care to comment below with their own notes and opinions, whether you were present or not, we would be most interested to hear them.

Ewan Murray
Head of Tastings & Events