Taylor Fladgate ‘Very Old’ Single Vintages...

[Andrew Kirschner]

Friends,
I have a question:
Regarding the single vintage ‘very old’ wines from Taylor Fladgate.
Are these like aged tawnies or colheitas that can sit in the cellar for a long while, or do they have a shorter shelf life?
I’m hearing mixed opinions. I’m trying to keep one from each year that I’m not drinking, but want to be sure they’ll keep.
Thoughts? Thanks!
-Andrew

[Eric Menchen]

These are colheitas, tawnies from a single vintage. I like that on the Taylor website they say,

Not to be confused with Vintage Ports, which age in bottle, Single Harvest Ports are wines of a single year which have been aged in seasoned oak casks.

Yes, you increased the confusion by adding new terminology that more closely resembles an existing style!

Anyway, they are most likely made from the stocks of Wiese & Krohn, which TFP bought out a few years ago.

Can they age? General thinking is that they are best when put in the bottle, but can be good for 5-10 years. Some people (named Glenn and Dirk) say colheitas get better with some time in the bottle, and if this is true, we should perhaps consider that some producers, like Niepoort, may make more age-worthy colheitas than others.

[Glenn E.]

Eric's advice is correct.

The general rule of thumb is that tawny ports in general, which includes Colheitas, should be consumed as close to the bottling date as possible but that they'll be fine for 3-5 years. After that they will start to change, but exactly how they change and whether or not that change is an improvement depends on the producer and on the person drinking the Port.

You'll probably find a lot of reports that tawnies aged in bottle lose their freshness. What that typically means is that the perceived acidity in the wine has mellowed and is no longer as bright as it was when the Port was first bottled. For some people - such as me - that mellowing is an improvement because I sometimes find that brightness to be too much and prefer the smoother acidity that develops with time in bottle. This is especially true for me with Kopke's tawny Ports, though I do also find it to be true for some Krohn tawny Ports. And as Eric said, the bulk of what Taylor Fladgate is now selling under the Taylor's brand comes from stocks they received when they purchased Wiese & Krohn several years ago.

Some (but not much) tawny Port is designed to age in bottle, in particular those from Niepoort. The "Dirk" in Eric's reply is Dirk Niepoort, and he strongly believes that his tawny Ports can improve with bottle age. I have had his Ports with as much as 30 years in bottle, and I think he is correct.

The reality is that they'll keep for decades. Port never really "goes bad" like you hear about other wine, but it will change over time and depending on your personal taste you may or may not like the way it changes. But even if you don't like the way it changes, it won't be bad it will just be less impressive than when originally bottled.

[Andrew Kirschner]

Thank you for your thoughts. Based upon this, I will plan to retain one bottle of each, and enjoy the others over the coming year or two.

Best,
Andrew

[Miguel Simoes]

To pile on w Glenn, some of the best Port i've had was from two bottles of 1955 Burmester Colheita (single year tawny) that were bottled in the 1980s and sat in bottle for some 35 yrs before i opened them.
I did note at the time that a touch more acidity would have made them even better.