Taylor’s tees up 50-year-old series

Taylor’s Port is preparing to launch a new series of rare single harvest Ports, with the first expression due to reach markets worldwide in January 2014.

With 1964 the first to arrive, the Port house plans to make this an annual release to coincide with 50^th birthdays or anniversaries.

Presented in a frosted Taylor’s bottle with a beechwood box, around 2,000 bottles will be available with an RRP of £150 each.

“Taylor’s holds one of the most comprehensive and extensive reserves of very old, cask aged Ports of any producer,” explained the house’s managing director Adrian Bridge. “They include a collection of rare single harvest wines which we plan to release every year to coincide with 50^th landmark celebrations.”

He also highlighted the famously age-worthy attributes of good quality Port, saying: “There are few wines in the world which can match the longevity and freshness of these extraordinary Ports and the ones in our collection have survived in perfect condition.”

Unlike vintage Port, which is bottled around two years after its harvest, the long barrel ageing experienced by single harvest Ports means that they tend to be fully mature when they are bottled. As with tawny styles, which also undergo extended maturation in barrel, there is no need to decant single harvest Port.

Taylor’s has already confirmed its plan to launch the “equally rare and exceptional” 1965 single harvest Port as the second addition to this series, due to arrive in 2015.

2014 will also see Taylor’s build on the success of tawny Port Scion, which was harvested in 1855 and released in 2010, with the launch of another 19^th century single harvest tawny.

The 1863 single harvest expression began its life in the same year that US President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War, thereby guaranteeing freedom to around 3.1 million slaves across the 10 states that were still in a state of rebellion.