99 points James Suckling

This is an over 80-year-old blend with amazing toffee, caramel, tangy orange and light balsamic character. Medium body, very sweet, yet there’s a freshness and lifted state that gives it length and intensity. So long and flavorful. Rum and raisin. Shows real very old tawny character. It’s like you are in the aging cellars with dirt floors and old wooden vats. Drink or hold. – James Suckling

The VVOP is the latest in a series of limited releases of very fine and rare Ports drawn from Taylor Fladgate’s treasury of very very old cask-aged reserves. This unique blend is one of the oldest wines released to date. It is made from a selection of rare lots matured in wood in Taylor Fladgate’s cellars, some of which have been quietly concentrating to a magical quintessence since before the Second World War.

The sublime, complex character of Taylor Fladgate VVOP was born of a magical interaction with the oak casks, in which the wine has been nurtured over many decades of ageing in the company’s cellars.

Deep chestnut brown at the centre gradually fading to amber and a narrow edge of pale straw at the rim. The age of this magical Port is immediately evident. It represents the pinnacle of what long wood ageing can achieve particularly when skilful blending provides additional definition and symmetry. The wine has the precision and intricacy of a watch movement, all its complex elements working together in harmony. The nose is intense but finely constituted and the aromas remarkably delicate and ethereal given its great age.

Undertones of butterscotch, dried figs and freshly ground coffee intermingle with marzipan and sultana to give the wine an opulent, plum pudding character but this remains discreetly in the background and is lifted by fresh notes of orange peel and apricot. Hints of vanilla, cedar wood and cinnamon provide a subtle spicy redolence. On the palate the wine has a light touch displaying bright acidity and perfect balance but holds massive reserves of aroma which emerge on the long finish in a seemingly endless mellow surge. Very few Ports retain such balance and finesse after so many years maturing in cask.