For The Love Of Port

I was wondering about something. I've always understood that Q. de Vargellas is considderd to be the "backbone" of Taylor's vintage port.
While I was reading some TN's (Roy's forecast VP 2000 and 2007) I noticed that in both years Taylor's traditional vintage port became a better rating than the Taylor's VV.
Assuming the grapes from the oldest (best?) vines are used for the VV, this somewhat surprises me...

Monique.

Monique,

The grapes that produce Vinha Velha do indeed come from a parcel of very old vines within Quinta de Vargellas and I am sure you are not the first to wonder how Taylor can use the juice for this wine at the expense of blending it into their classic Taylor blend and that the Taylor can still score higher points than the TVVV. It does seem counter-intuitive, but it does happen.

I put this down to the fact that the classic Taylor is a blend of different quantities of special wines from a number of quintas. In any given year it might not be necessary or ideal to use all of the juice from the TVVV parcel in order to obtain the optimum blend. But I am quite sure that every recent classic Taylor vintage will contain some wine from that parcel of vines. The blending gives a complexity and an opportunity to reach a perfect balance that is perhaps more difficult to achieve from such a small single parcel as the TVVV, especially when looking to make a large volume.

My understanding, having discussed this with people from Taylor Fladgate at the quinta and at various tasting events, is that the classic blend has first call on the TVVV wines and only when there is an excess of exceptional wine from that parcel will a TVVV be released.

I recently tasted the 2009 Taylor and TVVV side-by-side and on that showing I actually preferred the TVVV. But I have preferred the Taylor is some other vintages so it isn't something one can reliably predict that one will be better than the other. Quinta do Noval and Noval Nacional "suffer" from a similar phenonenon in that it does not always foloow that the Nacional will be better than the regular Noval.

Derek

Thank you, Derek, for your explanation.

I didn't know that the classic blend always has the first call of the vinhas velhas, so that could be an important reason.

Monique.

Something else that comes into play is that Vargellas is huge. Even though it provides the backbone for Taylor's Vintage Port, I have been told that it takes only 6% of Vargellas' production to provide that. Since VVV is an even smaller production run, I would guess that there are plenty of grapes coming from the old vines to go into both Ports.

Also remember that it doesn't take old vines to make great Port. The infamous 1931 Noval was produced from vines that had been replanted just a few years prior. (I can never remember the date... I think the vinyard was replanted in 1924?)

VVV is a great product, but it doesn't surprise me when the classic Taylor blend out-scores it especially when they're this young. I think that VVV needs more time to fully mature than the classic blend.

Hi Glenn,

I'm aware that it doesn't only take old vines to make a great wine or port, but when it comes to still wines I mostly prefer the "vieilles vignes" wine above the "plain" wine. So along with the fact that Vargellas is considered as the backbone of Taylor's VP's thats why I wondered. But as I said before, I didn't know Vargellas is só huge! I thought the old vines parcel would be just enough for the Vargellas VV.

Nevertheless it surprises me that only 6 year old vines can provide a great port (as I understand the Nacional 1931 must be).

But, I do have both the Taylor's 2000 VP and the Vargellas VV 2000 in my cellar. I'll open them in about 15 years and try for myself...

Thanks, Monique.

I do wonder about the story that NN31 was made from 5/6 year old vines. It was at a time when there was very little observation going on in the Douro and no records of the harvest or the making of the wine remain. Given that there does not seem to have been a similar phenomenon on any other quinta in any other vintage before or since I do have to question whether or not it is more legend than reality.

Derek T. wrote:I do wonder about the story that NN31 was made from 5/6 year old vines. It was at a time when there was very little observation going on in the Douro and no records of the harvest or the making of the wine remain. Given that there does not seem to have been a similar phenomenon on any other quinta in any other vintage before or since I do have to question whether or not it is more legend than reality.

I also wonder exactly how much had been "replanted" and how much was still older vines. Was it only partially replanted and over the years the story has slowly changed or been misinterpreted. Given different languages and other factors back then that could easily have been the case.

But the topic of old vines always being better is a small bit of myth. A lot of other factors contribute to an older vine producing a better product than just it's age. Let me put it another way; It's like when you buy a new house or car, it takes a while for you to figure out how it handles, when things need to be fixed, what different sounds mean, or even its little quirks that occasionally crop up. But after some time you finally figure it out, you can anticipate issues and deal with them ahead of time, and everything runs a whole lot smoother. Same goes for older vines. Year after year the same workers tend to that vine and they get to know how it behaves in all kinds of different climatic growing conditions. So they learn how to adjust and deal with that vine to ensure they get the most out of it. With a young vine they don't have that prior background on how it will behave so it becomes more of a learn-as-you-go process. That doesn't always lend itself to being able get the most out of your vine. A young vine is just as capable of producing a great product as an old vine, but it generally takes more work to do so. Obviously this is just a short and simple analogy for a complex topic and sorry for the thread drift as well....