The start of the harvest at Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft is always a special milestone, a meeting point between the generous nature of the Douro and the legacy of over 300 years of tradition.

At the beginning of September, Mentzendorff took a small group of press out to Portugal to find out more over the course of a couple of days. Our first stop was Taylor’s iconic Quinta de Vargellas, the birthplace of their legendary Vintage Ports, known for their unrivalled depth and structure – Taylor’s signature traits. Upon arrival we were greeted by The Fladgate Partnership CEO, Adrian Bridge and his wife Natasha, who took us for a sundowner Taylor’s Chip Dry and Tonic on a short boat trip down the Douro River. This was followed by dinner at the house where, amongst other delicious wines, we were treated the Taylor’s Vintage 2003 and the exceptional Taylor’s 1896 Single Harvest. But of course, there’s no such thing as a free dinner! A certain amount of post meal trepidation hit as we were whisked off to help the incredibly hard-working team with treading the grapes in the lagars before bed!

Day two saw us take a tour of the Nogueira Winery before a quick visit to Croft’s Quinta da Roêda and then a very first look visit to Quinta do Portal which was purchased by The Fladgate Partnership earlier in the year. This was followed by lunch at Quinta do Panascal and some delicious Fonseca wines before returning to Porto for a pre-dinner tasting of the range of Fladgate Still and Sparkling wines.

The final day started with a tour of Taylor’s Lodge followed by a focussed tasting of the Taylor’s Tawny Ports, Taylor’s and Fonseca vintages and some new releases from Croft. Of course, no trip to Porto is complete without a visit to WOW so after a quick walk around the new Fonseca Visitors Centre we were treated to a tour of WOW’s Wine Experience. The whole trip was topped off with delicious lunch at WOW’s Golden Catch restaurant before we had to say goodbye to our wonderful hosts and head back home again.

Thank you very much to everyone for hosting us! An incredibly informative and enjoyable trip was had by all.