Sentinels feeds premium Port boom

The launch of new vintage Port, Taylor’s Sentinels, represents a reaction to the rise in demand for special category styles, according to chief winemaker David Guimaraens.

Introducing the maiden Sentinels 2022 vintage in London this week, Guimaraens drew a distinction between overall decline within the Port category and the recent boom in higher quality expressions.

“We’ve never sold as much special category as we do today,” he commented, drawing a link to the wider wine industry trend, whereby “people drink less but better.”

Port & Douro Wine Institute (IVDP) data shows an 8.7% global volume decline in total Port sales during the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago. However, the same time frame saw an 18.7% volume uplift for premium Port styles. This trend was particularly emphatic in the UK market, where standard Port sales volumes fell by 45.4% but premium categories leapt by 52%.

While recent years have seen a flurry of launch activity for aged tawny Port, Guimaraens insisted this latest release was not designed to draw attention back to vintage expressions.

“Sentinels is more of a reaction to the success of Vargellas, where we have limited capacity, and the strength of the Taylor’s name that means we could sell more Port,” he explained.

With an RRP of £40, this new Taylor’s vintage expression has been positioned alongside the house’s existing single quinta Vargellas, whose 2022 vintage sits at £44, and its sister brand’s Fonseca Guimaraens 2022 at £39.

Separate quinta expression

Just like Fonseca Guimaraens, which is made from a blend of the same three vineyards that in a “classic” year would create the Fonseca vintage Port, Taylor’s Sentinels is made from the same Pinhão vineyards that would be used in the best years for Taylor’s vintage Port. The only difference is that one major component of a Taylor’s vintage Port, the house’s Quinta de Vargellas on the edge of the Upper Douro, is bottled as a separate single quinta expression.

“There is a demand in the market for these vintages from non-classic years,” observed Guimaraens. “That put a bit of pressure on Vargellas.”

As a single quinta, Vargellas offers “an extraordinary identity but there’s a limit to how much it can produce,” he explained.

The launch of Sentinels not only enables Taylor’s to solve this supply and demand challenge, but also creates a more regular vintage outlet for some of its top-quality fruit.

Distinguishing Sentinels from a “classic” vintage Port, Guimaraens remarked: “We release it at about half the price, but it’s a vintage Port in exactly the same right. The only difference is that the year does not give the longevity you would expect in a classic vintage.”

On the decision by parent company The Fladgate Partnership to produce a Sentinels, Vargellas and Fonseca Guimaraens in 2022, Guimaraens recalled this growing season as “one of the driest years in the last 20 years.”

In his view, “The wines don’t have the structure for us to declare them as a classic vintage; they don’t have the ripeness of a hot year either because the heat came earlier in the season, but they have really attractive fruit.”

That combination of fruit quality and less imposing structure helps producers overcome the cellaring requirement for vintage Port that presents such a modern-day barrier for many wine drinkers.

“The challenge for consumers is that they think vintage Port is only good if it’s old,” observed Guimaraens. “No – it can only be mature when it’s old, but there’s a lot of pleasure now.” With respect to the Sentinels, he added: “I get killed for saying this, but this is the perfect ruby Port. If it’s fruit that you like, then drink it.”

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