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Quick Facts
- Country: Portugal
- Region: Douro
- Vintage: 2002
- Bottle Volume: 75cl
- Grape Variety: Touriga Nacional
- ABV: 20%
- Food Match: Cheese
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Additional Information
Deep purple-black with narrow magenta rim. Powerful, exuberant, fresh blackcurrant and cherry nose. Lovely floral notes. Firm, but well integrated tannins on the palate. Fresh, ripe, mouth filling black fruit and plum flavours. Long, lingering blackberry and dark chocolate after taste. A very balanced, stylish wine.
How is Port made?
Port wine begins life in much the same way as other wines.
Around mid-September, the grapes are picked by hand. Port wine is made from a wide range of traditional grape varieties, most of them native to the Douro Valley. Seldom found elsewhere, these varieties are perfectly suited to the hot, arid conditions of the Douro Valley and are the source of much of Port’s unique and distinctive character. The best known red varieties include the Touriga Francesa, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela and Tinto Cão but in total there are around thirty types of Port grape. Most of these varieties have relatively small thick-skinned berries which produce the dense concentrated must (grape juice) needed to make Port.
Although they may be planted separately, the varieties are normally harvested and fermented together. Each grape variety contributes its own particular character – such as the intense flavours of woodland fruit, delicate floral scents, exotic spicy notes or the wild resiny aromas of gumcistus – to the nose of the wine. The grape varieties work together like instruments in an orchestra to create a subtle, complex and multi-dimensional harmony.
Once they are picked, the grapes are taken to the winery. On the Taylor estates they are carried in small trays to ensure that they are kept in perfect condition. On arrival in the winery they are evaluated by the wine maker and inspected on a sorting table before being de-stemmed. In the traditional process, still used to make the wines from Taylor’s own estates, the grapes are then placed in wide, thigh-deep granite treading tanks known as lagares. Here they are trodden by foot.
