Port ProDuCers anD shiPPers 239produce firm, tannic wines that sometimes seem rather reserved when young, the wines
from Terra Feita are big and powerful with huge amounts of ripe fruit. It is intended that
wine from Quinta do Junco will also be bottled as a single-quinta vintage Port.
With so much adulation over wines at the top of the spectrum, it is easy to overlook
Taylor’s rich reserve wine known as First Estate after the property at Salgueiral established
by Bartholomew Bearsley in 1744. Taylor also produce a full range of aged tawnies which
includes a delicate, fresh twenty-year-old and culminates in a supremely refined forty-
year-old. The winemaker currently responsible for this exceptional range of wines (and
those of Fonseca and Croft) is David Guimaraens, who took over from his father Bruce
in the early 1990s. Alistair Robertson retired as Managing Director in 2000 handing over
the day-to-day reins to his daughter Natasha and son-in-law, Adrian Bridge. With an
energetic approach, they look well placed to sustain Taylor’s role as a trendsetter in the
Port establishment. Capitalising on Oporto as a tourist destination, their latest venture
has been the Yeatman Hotel (see page 268).
tuke holdsworth
(see under hunt Roope)
Quinta do Vale dona Maria
Quinta do Vale D. Maria
5130-141 ervedosa do douro, Portugal
tel. (351) 223 744 320
http://www.quintavaledonamaria.com
After Quinta do Noval was sold in 1993, Cristiano van Zeller began producing both
Port and Douro wine from his wife’s family estate, Quinta Vale Dona Maria in the Rio
Torto. Van Zeller has restored the lagares on the property and, having relied on outside
Vargellas Vinha Velha: a new classic?
one of the attractions of vintage Port is its rarity and collectability, something that taylor
have addressed since 1995 with Vargellas Vinha Velha. the wine is a lote blended from
five plots of old vineyard at Quinta de Vargellas: Polverínho (the varietal plot planted
by Frank and dick yeatman in 1927), Renova do depósito, Renova do armazém,
Gricha and Vinha Grande. the age of the vines varies from around 80 to 120 years.
six vintages have been declared to date (1995, 1997, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2009)
with around 200 cases having been made each year, representing about 2 per cent
of the total production of Vargellas. Made from a time-honoured field blend of grape
varieties, Vargellas Vinha Velha doesn’t have the impressively deep colour of a modern-
day vintage Port (see note on colour on page 159), yet the wines are remarkable for
their elegance and refinement, evident even at a relatively early age. the underlying
structure and rapier-like tannins suggest the wines will last and last.