Taylor’s declares 2015 single quinta Ports

The Fladgate partnership has announced it will be bottling 2015 vintages for three of its estates including Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas and Croft’s Quinta da Roêda.

Announced, as is now a tradition, on St George’s Day the 2015 vintage bottlings will also include a commemorative Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage to mark the bicentenary of the company’s founding in 1815.

Adrian Bridge, managing director of The Fladgate Partnership, said: “The 2015 harvest has produced excellent, but distinctly different wines from our individual properties. Quinta de Vargellas displays all the balance and elegance that are the hallmarks of the property and has the structure and completeness which will allow it to hold up extremely well in the bottle.

“As we celebrated Fonseca’s bicentenary in 2015, I am delighted that the year has produced Vintage Port of such excellent quality. The Guimaraens 2015 will make superb early drinking, but will not disappoint those who wish to cellar it until a later date. At Quinta da Roêda, our investment in the vineyards continues to reap benefits in terms of consistently first class wines, with the 2015 wines displaying all the grace and refinement of this property.”

Describing the weather conditions in 2015, David Guimaraens, head winemaker at The Fladgate Partnership, added: “The months leading up to the 2015 harvest were unusually dry, with rainfall well below average, but across the board the grapes were extremely healthy, and the resulting wines very fine.

“The condition of the 2015 crop at Quinta de Vargellas will be remembered as one of the best of recent years; perfectly formed, disease-free bunches and very little raisin. The Fonseca properties in the Pinhão area recorded rainfall about a third less than the 10-year average.

“Despite this, ripening was well-balanced and at harvest time the crop was in excellent condition. The first grapes were ready to pick by the end of the first week of September and first-rate wines were made right through to the end of the harvest in early October. Quinta da Roêda in 2015 saw perfectly healthy grapes picked from both the extensive area of old vineyards, to the more recent plantations. Dry conditions in the early summer brought forward the start to the ripening season and as expected the Roêda harvest got off to a relatively early start on 7th September, with winemakers at Croft recording excellent extraction.”

The wines will be available in the UK through agent Mentzendorff and will be shipped at the end of 2017.

The Fladgate Partnership is not the only Port producer to have declared a 2015 vintage at its quintas; Symington Family Estates has declared at Quinta dos Malvedos and at Cockburn’s, which, like Fonseca, celebrated its bicentenary in 2015.

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