Taylor's Single Harvest, Taylor Fladgate 1863

The 1863 has not been topped up to our knowledge and the records from W&K also do not record any. It was kept in two casks in a locked cage at their warehouse in Serpa Pinto here in Gaia. This wine was the great pride and joy of the Falcao Carneiro family and they only decided to release it having seen the success of Scion. Jose Falcao Carneiro is a very serious person and I believe that the special point about this wine was that it came from 1863 whereas the Weise & Krohn was founded in 1865. So the wine may well have been among the first that was purchased by the company's founders. Certainly the lodge where it was kept has been rented by W&K since 1880. The wine is very dense with the very developed rim of olive color, which is always the indication of a very old tawny. It is also viscous with residual sugar at 224-grams per liter. The Baume is 10.3 and the pH is 3.53. Lead levels are high at 330 parts per billion but this would be expected from old Ports due to movement through brass fitting in the old days."" So we must doff our caps and bow before a fortified wine that never fully relinquished its flush of youth. If the Scion was Katherine Hepburn, this is Jane Russell. The 1863 Tawny is a Port from another time and another world, but whose pleasure is with us today.

Dark brown with some gold hue and a bright orange rim to the color. It shows intense aromas of brown sugar, toffee and lime peel. Some meat and walnuts too. Full-bodied, very sweet and thick. It's like syrup yet fresh, bright and tangy. Amazing power and richness shows the ripeness and heat of the vintage. Stunning old port aged more than a century and a half in old oak barrels. Bottled this year. An extraordinary experience tasting this. 1863 was one of the greatest vintages ever and before phylloxera destroyed the European tasting.

The 1863 Colheita is from “the last great harvest in the Douro before phylloxera, a disease that destroyed the vineyards across Europe in the 19th century, had begun [causing major damage],” said Van Zeller. Recently, I reviewed a 1934 Niepoort, which in its own right is a stunning, dense and intense Colheita that would be a fine bargain alternative (if you think $1,000 is a bargain). This 1863 reminded me of that in some respects with its dark, old wood nuances and its intense, concentrated flavors and bouquet. There, the comparison tends to end, however. This has far less depth and pure power, but far more harmony. Simply, it is a complete wine. Don't even dare to think of it as a half dead relic. It is anything but. It opened soft, with a sensual texture that simply said "sex appeal" from start to finish. Cloaked in velvet and remarkably caressing, it is an old tawny that surely shows its age, although certainly not in a negative way. It simply has the feel of healthy maturity honestly acquired over time. It seemed a little reticent otherwise on opening, although sweet and juicy. The mid-palate showed some wood and still delicious fruit with a dark demeanor. I loved its complexity as well as its sensuality. It was a huge winner, but it truly sealed the deal the next day. I retasted the remnants a little cooler, pulling it out around 45F and allowing it to warm to the low to mid-50sF. I thought it drank best there, a bit colder than my normal optimum (of around 60-63F). The wine reinforced something that I noted the day before, but did not obsess about the first time around--the classically powerful bouquet. I sat it down on a table about 3 feet from my chair. It was pretty glorious in a cool, drafty room. It was simply astonishing how lively and intense this ancient wine ultimately showed. Every drop of this I touched would cause the heavily concentrated aromas to linger indefinitely---on my teeth, my hands, my lips.(Gratuitous and Obvious Tip Department: Don't try tasting this and then going to a table wine tasting!) If it did not seem quite as intense in that regard as, say, the Niepoort, it held its own amazingly well, notwithstanding the extra 70+ years of age. The flavor medley seemed especially complex on Day 2, leaning more to treacle and hickory smoked molassess, but the marvel was how mouthwateringly juicy it was on the finish, the acidity cutting through the wood and the fruit and dramatically enlivening this. This simply deserves all the plaudits you can give it.

***This wine was known as "Wiese & Krohn 1863 Colheita" when Mark Squires tasted it***