Taylor’s releases 1968 Tawny

Taylor’s Port has released the fifth and latest vintage in its Single Harvest Port range – the 50-year-old 1968.

Drawn from the house’s supply of old tawny Ports, the 1968 follows swiftly on the back of the 1967 which was released in January this year.

Managing director Adrian Bridge commented: “A 50th birthday or anniversary is a landmark occasion. Taylor’s Single Harvest Ports offer a unique opportunity to celebrate with an extraordinary 50 year old wine in perfect condition.”

The wine was made in a tumultuous political year with the Vietnam War having stepped up yet another bloody gear following the launch of the Tet Offensive; Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated, violence marred the Democratic Convention, Richard Nixon became presdient of the United States and the cause of Civil Rights received an added boost with the Civil Rights Act and the first televised interracial kiss on Star Trek.

It was also a great artistic year with the release of seminal cinematic masterpieces such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and album releases from The Beatles and Rolling Stones.

Conforming, perhaps, to this more creative side of the year, the Port is described as having: “A mature, opulent plum-pudding nose, intense and powerful, with all elements in perfect harmony. Warm base notes of raisin and toffee mingle with a rich vanilla oakiness, aromas of walnut and marzipan and spicy hints of black pepper.”

Available in limited quantities, in the UK the wine will be stocked at Hedonism, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges for £175 per bottle.

Other notable events of 1968:

The Green Bay Packers win the second Super Bowl

The Tet Offensive is launched in Vietnam in what becomes one of the war’s bloodiest years.

Lyndon B Johnson announces he will not seek re-election but also signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968

2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes are released in cinemas

Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis

Formula One driver Jim Clark is killed at the Hockenheim circuit

Pierre Elliott Turdeau becomes Prime Minister of Canada

British politician Enoch Powell makes his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech

The student riots take place in Paris

The Beatles announce the creation of Apple Records

Andy Warhol is shot and wounded by radical feminist Valerie Solanas

Rosemary’s Baby is released in cinemas

Robert F Kennedy is assassinated in LA

The last steam train passenger service runs in Britain

The 1968 Democratic Convention descends into violence in Chicago

The Prague Spring blossoms and fades

Apollo 7 is launched

Photo: NASA

The XIX Olympiad is held in Mexico City – athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos later raise their fists in the Black Panther salute on the medal podium

Led Zeppelin perform their first live gig at Surrey University in England

Jacqueline Kennedy marries shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis

Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States

Yale University admits women

The Beatles release the White Album

Lieutenant Uhura and Captain Kirk share television’s first interracial kiss in Star Trek

The Rolling Stones release ‘Beggars Banquet’ (which includes the song ‘Sympathy for the Devil’)

Apollo 8’s astronauts become the first to see the far side of the Moon and photograph Earthrise (right)