Wine Reviews

Singed black sesame, hazelnut, buckwheat, dried blood orange and walnut husk notes merge, starting dry but unfolding steadily to offer succulence and underlying sweetness as date, peanut brittle and salted caramel accents fill in through the finish. A fully mature wine, with ample energy and persistence, which makes this pretty special.

Taylor Fladgate is selling a 1976 Very Old Single Harvest Tawny Port, which is a Tawny from a single harvest, in the category known as Colheita. It was aged for a long time in oak casks, from the harvest until bottling, and slowly oxidized through the decades, almost half a century, in the cellars of Vilanova de Gaia. It has a deep amber color and a powerful and nuanced nose, with notes of brandy and hints of an Oloroso Sherry. It’s silky and has great balance between sweetness and acidity (including volatile acidity, which always plays a role in these very old wines), and it’s elegant, long and persistent. It has 20% alcohol, 5.8 grams of acidity and 139 grams of sugar, reflecting concentration from evaporation and old age but brilliantly balanced. 5,000 bottles produced. The back label mentions it was bottled in 2025.