For The Love Of Port

Opened for a spontaneous night of Port and Rock Band with friends.

2003 Taylor LBV

Color: Deep red with significant purple overtones. Opaque near the center.
Nose: Darker fruits, though some are red and some are black. Very slight whiff of alcohol. Beautiful nose. A bit grapey.
Palate: Fruity, warm, welcoming, and delicious. Good, firm tannins and good acidity. Medium full body. Silky smooth and luscious. Blackberry, black currant, and some ripe red raspberry or possibly some purple brambleberry. Not terribly complex, but also not simple. An excellent middle ground.
Finish: A little bit of grip, a little bit of heat, and then echos of the palate with a little bit of chocolate added in. Long and smooth. Resolves nicely.

Score: 92 points. Possibly worthy of 93, but I didn't take detailed notes so I'll be conservative. This drank extremely well throughout the night and provided a perfect counterpoint to the Portal 20-yr Old Tawny that we were drinking with it.

Sadly, it appears that there's almost no more 2003 Taylor LBV to be found. Since this bottle was my last one I just tried to find more on the internet and the one listing that popped up on WineSearcher is actually out-of-stock. I found another listing that was mislabeled as "late harvest port" and called them to find out what it actually was, but they too seem to be out of stock.

Glenn E. wrote:Sadly, it appears that there's almost no more 2003 Taylor LBV to be found. Since this bottle was my last one I just tried to find more on the internet and the one listing that popped up on WineSearcher is actually out-of-stock. I found another listing that was mislabeled as "late harvest port" and called them to find out what it actually was, but they too seem to be out of stock.

Yes, they are now onto the 2005 here in the USA, which is good but not up to the level the 2003 was. Matter of fact, that's a hard level for any filtered LBV to match.

Good news! The second company that appeared to be out of stock called me back and had 9 bottles left, so I ordered 4 of them.

Glenn: Your tasting note pleases me, as I've got 6 bottles of this LBV waiting in line to be drunk after I finish some 12 bottles of Graham 2003 LBV first. Do you feel that this 2003 Taylor LBV has improved over time -- even though it is filtered -- or simply remained static in its tasting attributes? I bought my Grahams and Taylor filtered LBVs to drink in the near term, without deliberate aging, to tide me over while putting about 5 years age (relative to when I initially sampled them) on some unfiltered LBVs such as 2000 Warre LBV, 2001 Ramos-Pinto LBV, Fonseca 2003 LBV, etc.

Michael: my ratings have been fairly consistent according to the TNDB (91-92), so I guess that means it really hasn't changed much over time to me. In looking back through my notes they only thing I might attribute to time is that it seems a little bit smoother now than I remember it being before. Not that it was harsh before, but this last bottle was really quite velvety.

Like you, I have some unfiltered LBVs in waiting. 2003 Noval and 2003 Quevedo in my case. I had been purchasing the 2003 Taylors bottle by bottle as I needed them, but now that they've all but disappeared I figured I better stock up. I should probably go look around for some 1995 Smith Woodhouse LBV, too, as I like that one a lot also.

I have 5 bottles of the Smith-Woodhouse 1995 LBV, also. What's your opinion on that? Is that still improving or at its best now? I would have 6 bottles, but the first bottle of wine I have ever broken was one of these Hopefully that is the first AND LAST bottle I break.

I haven't had a Taylor's LBV in quite some time. It has been a good quality workman-like commercial LBV but does on occasion reach stellar heights. The last really good one my friends raved about was the '87 LBV.

These comments have got me thinking about revisiting the Taylor LBV, especially if I can find any of the '03s.

Mahmoud

Michael: I think the '95 SW LBV is probably at its peak. It will probably hold there for a few years, though, so no real need to drink it up.

Then again I haven't had many old LBVs so I don't really know what the maturation curve looks like. My oldest are an '84 Smith Woodhouse and an '81 Niepoort, both of which were very secondary and almost tawny-like. After that are a couple of '94s and the '95 SW, none of which seemed at all past their prime. Given that limited data, it seems like the curve must be very cliff-like once an LBV reaches its peak.

A friend of mine has told me that he saw a bottle of the '02 Taylor LBV. Any comments about that vintage?

Mahmoud.

2002? That's a reasonably rare vintage. My impression may be entirely wrong, but I thought that 2002 was a pretty uninspiring vintage in the Douro? Similar to 1993? I have only limited experience with the vintage (a Dow crusted that I tried in 2008 and a Quinta da Revolta LBV from right after the 2010 Port Harvest Tour) but neither of my experiences were stellar.

It would certainly be interesting to try a 2002 Taylor LBV, but I wouldn't have high hopes of it comparing well with a 2003.

Today I found a single bottle of the '03 Taylors LBV, only one, so I have to decide whether to drink it now or cellar it for a while. I think in the interest of academia I will drink a few of Taylor's other vintages before opening the '03. Needless to say I will keep an eye out for more.

Mahmoud.

Mahmoud,

I had a 1983 Taylor's LBV a week ago and although filtered, it was a very sound bottle of wine, never designed to last 28 years but was quite delicious and fully mature.

2003 Taylor's LBV is crazy good and the best LBV by Taylor that I can remember. As to 2002, it really depends on when the picking took place. Rains spoiled what had looked like a picture perfect postcard of a vintage. Rain came late in the harvest and ruined lots of grapes. Taylor was fortunate with their picking. The Vargellas '02 has never yet been publicly released, but it is supposedly a very good bottling.

My luck's holding out. Today I found two bottles of the '03 Taylor's LBV to add to my first. With 3 bottles in hand I just might pop one to try and cellar the other two.

Mahmoud.

Mahmoud Ali wrote:My luck's holding out. Today I found two bottles of the '03 Taylor's LBV to add to my first. With 3 bottles in hand I just might pop one to try and cellar the other two.

Don't cellar them for too long - the 2003 Taylor LBV is filtered, so it's not meant to be aged. It won't hurt it for a few years, but it's not likely to get much better while being cellared either.

I think the fact that it's filtered is one of the reasons that I like it - it's very smooth and mellow.

Glenn E. wrote:Don't cellar them for too long - the 2003 Taylor LBV is filtered, so it's not meant to be aged. It won't hurt it for a few years, but it's not likely to get much better while being cellared either.

Point taken, but here's Roy's remarks:

I had a 1983 Taylor's LBV a week ago and although filtered, it was a very sound bottle of wine, never designed to last 28 years but was quite delicious and fully mature..

Maybe one now, another in the medium term and a third sometime later?

Mahmoud.

As a result of this post I have been keeping an eye out for the '03 Taylors LBV and was successful in finding several bottles but as a result I ended up with a bottles of the '02 and '04 as well.

Having tried all three I must say that the '03 is the better vintage, quite rich, fruity, and deliciously elegant. Both the '02 and '04 were pretty decent and though I gave the edge to the '02, my partner preferred the '04.

Today I happened to see some more back vintages, a pair of '03s and '01s. Although I passed on them I now think I should investigate.

Cheers......................Mahmoud.