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Fladgate’s Guimaraens on ‘idiocy’, declarations and Taylor’s Sentinels

Fladgate’s Guimaraens on ‘idiocy’, declarations and Taylor’s Sentinels

2024 looks like being declared a classic port vintage – the first since 2018 – according to David Guimaraens, the celebrated technical director and head winemaker for The Fladgate Partnership (TFP), owners of Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft. Geoffrey Dean met up with him over lunch to talk about the thinking behind vintage declaration and taste the 2022s including a new port called Sentinels, and one of a number of new still wines that Fladgate is investing heavily in.



Geoffrey Dean
25th January 2025by Geoffrey Dean
posted in Tasting: Wine ,

The decision will not be taken before spring 2026, but there may potentially be glad tidings for vintage port devotees. No ‘classic’ vintage has been declared by the port houses since 2018, but David Guimaraens, the celebrated technical director and head winemaker for The Fladgate Partnership (TFP), owners of Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft, considers the outstandingly good 2024 harvest to have sufficient promise to be declared a classic in 18 months time.

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David Guimaraens: “We have a much healthier industry if we have two great styles of port recognised rather than all vintage or nothing."

Guimaraens, several generations of whose family have long occupied key positions in the Portuguese port industry, was in London to show TFP’s single quinta ports from the 2022 vintage - Taylor’s Vargellas, Fonseca Guimaraens and Taylor’s Sentinels (a new release). More on them later, but first to the question of vintage port declarations and the huge growth in demand for tawnies.

The years 2015-18 brought back-to-back declarations in the Douro for the first time in over a century.

“We had a great run in those four vintages,” Guimaraens mused. “A couple of port houses declared 2015 as it was very, very fine. We declared in ’16, ’17 and ’18 as all three had the combination of quality and longevity you need for a great vintage port.”

“The ‘16s are some of the finest, purest ports I’ve had - not as big in structure but really voluptuous in fruit. ’17 was the opposite and similar to 1945 - a very hot year which produced more aggressive tannins. So ’17 was massive. ’18 was a mixture of the two. In the years after, ’19 made very elegant ports but not big; ’20 we didn’t do anything, including single quintas, as they were overripe brutes; ’21 was wet and diluted, and ’22, one of the driest years in last 20, didn't have the structure for us to declare a classic.”

Non-vintage port years, though, are a boon for the production of tawnies. The stats for the huge increase in demand for tawnies make interesting reading, for Guimaraens revealed that in his first year back in Portugal in 1990, after a five-year sojourn in Australia, Taylor’s sold 20,000 litres of their 20-year old tawny port. Already this year, sales have hit 160,000 litres.

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"We need to readjust ourselves as businesses,” David Guimaraens, London, November 2024

“The good thing is that you can turn imperfect ports into perfect tawnies,” he continued. “And we have a much healthier industry if we have two great styles of port recognised rather than all vintage or nothing. We have incredible stocks of tawny port. In between vintage declarations, there’s a whole world of tawny port that is capturing the attention of drinkers. To bring 50-year old tawnies or 80-year old VVOP to the market is pretty extraordinary, and that’s a very important sign.”

That importance relates to what Guimarens calls the ‘turbulence’ of the last few years.

“In the port trade we are going through major restructuring,” he added. “Although volumes are shrinking in the port industry, we're also going through a phase where we have never sold as much special category premium port. So we must be careful how we interpret a shrinking industry. Over the last 20 years the Douro has changed from a port wine producer to a region of port and very fine Douro table wines. So we need to readjust ourselves as businesses.”

That readjustment saw TFP acquire last spring its first vineyards in the Douro for table wine production. The Quinta do Portal estate joins other TFP wineries in the Minho, Dao and Bairrada wine regions. “It was an economic necessity to go into Douro table wine,” Guimaraens explained.

"Although we’re magical as a country, we’re idiots in the way we manage ourselves. This year we were only allowed to transform under the Douro Valley quota system one third of our production into port wine.” It means that the remaining two-thirds of fruit from TFP's 500 hectares of port vineyards can only be used for table wine production.

Tasting the new ports

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Croft 1970 Vintage Port

From a very hot year, so not a lot of fruit but stunning richness. A great old port from a house acquired by TFP in 2001 whose venerable Quinta da Roeda estate Guimaraens rates extremely highly.

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Principal Grand Reserva Red 2012

TFP’s new Bairrada estate on limestone soils with a maritime climate (acquired August 2023). Super-premium blend of Touriga Nacional (50%), Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Merlot that retails in Portugal for €110. Big, bold complex fruit with fine, soft tannins and concentrated richness. TFP CEO Adrian Bridge thinks Principal has the potential to become “the Vega Sicilia of Portugal.” He could be right.

Taylor’s Vargellas Single Quinta Vintage Port 2022

From FTP’s flagship estate, Vargellas. A superb single quinta port with violet and herbal aromas, notes of woodland fruit and blackcurrant. Firm but well-integrated tannic backbone to the wine which has notable elegance, balance and poise. RRP £44

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Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port 2022

A blend of three Fonseca quintas - Panascal, Cruzeiro and Santo Antonio. Has the same quality of a Fonseca classic vintage port but not the longevity. Aromatic opulence with intense voluptuous notes of cassis, blackberry and wild strawberry fruit with hints of spice and dark chocolate. Silky tannins. RRP £39.

Taylor’s Sentinels Vintage Port 2022

A new release but with the same philosophy as the Fonseca Guimaraens. A blend from Taylor’s historic properties in and around the Pinhao Valley. Lavender and herbal aromas with rich notes of damsons, dark plums, blackcurrants and black cherries. RRP £40.

Fonseca 1992 Vintage Port

Majestic vintage port with a cornucopia of notes of old leather, tobacco, spice, black fruit and chocolate. The first classic year declared for seven years - an unusually long gap.

The wines and ports from the The Fladgate Partnership are imported and sold in the UK through Mentzendorff which is a commercial partner of The Buyer. To discover more about them click here.