1977 - Taylor's, Vintage

The 1977 Taylor's Vintage Port is initially tight and conservative on the nose: strawberry, baked cherry, tobacco and wild hedgerow notes emerging but remaining tight-lipped. This needs a good decant! The palate is endowed with depth and concentration, very well balanced with an attractive crispness. Perhaps you could argue that it is a linear and more correct Taylor's compared to the 1970 and lacks some charm. But there is immense complexity here so it is more a case of a Port demanding a very long maturation in bottle. Tasted in the Factory House in Porto for Taylor's - The Story of a Classic Port House book.

This house must certainly be the Latour of Portugal. Their ports are remarkably backward yet still impressive when young. Of all the vintage ports, those of Taylor need the longest time to mature and even when fully mature seem to have an inner strength and firmness that keep them going for decades. Their tawnys are also among the very best, though somewhat expensive. The 1977 has consistently been at the top of my list of vintage ports in this great vintage, although the Dow, Graham, and Fonseca are equally splendid. It is a mammoth, opaque, statuesque vintage port of remarkable depth and power, but is should not be touched before 2000.

Mid tawny-brick. Like the Croft, a little fusty and tired on the nose, though there is plenty of depth of flavour on the palate – enough for the fairly firm, cocoa-powder tannins. Pretty good length of dark chocolate and dried fig too. (TJ)