50 Year Old Tawny Porto “Golden Age”

Quinta de Vargellas is the backbone of Taylor, Fladgate's declared vintage Portos, lending them consistency and defining their style. In the best undeclared years, Quinta de Vargellas stands on its own as a single-quinta vintage Porto. Vargellas was originally, in the early 1800s, three separate properties: The upper portion, Quinta do Vale; the middle portion, Quinta de Vargellas-do-Meio; and the lower portion, known by the several names of Quinta de Vargellas-de-Baixo, Quinta de Galega and Quinta do Brito. Documents substantiate that an 1808 vintage wine, possibly among those that surfaced in London in the 1820s, mentioned above, was produced from Quinta de Vargellas-do-Meio. Sometime between 1850 and 1890, the vineyards were consolidated into a single property. In 1893, on the heels of the arrival of the phylloxera epidemic, Taylor Fladgate purchased Vargellas in a state of near ruin; its yield in that year was barely 5% of current production. Today it is an A-rated vineyard, with 103 acres of vines planted on its steep, northeast-facing terraced slopes descending precipitously to the banks of the Douro.

Taylor, Fladgate's other vineyard is the A-rated, 217-acre Quinta de Terra Feita, a spectacular south-facing amphitheater on the west bank of the Pinhão River; this quinta contributes to the vintage port in declared years. Purchased in 1974, it has long been an important source of vintage quality wines for Taylor, Fladgate. It now has 126 acres planted to vines.

Purchased in 1998, Quinta do Junco is 82 acres (48 planted to vines) located near Quinta de Terra Feita in the Pinhão River Valley. The property is being developed to include vertical planting of the classic Porto grapes, a technique that Taylor, Fladgate helped pioneer in the Douro.

In 1978, Fonseca acquired Quinta do Panascal, whose reputation goes back to the 18th century, when wines from the Tavora Valley in Cima Corgo, where the vineyard is located, were considered among the finest-quality wines of Portugal. The company later expanded the vineyard by acquiring the neighboring Quinta do Val dos Muros. At present, 109 of its 188 acres are planted, principally to Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz. In high-quality but non-declared vintages, fruit from Quinta do Panascal is used to produce a single-quinta vintage Porto.