Taylor - Vintage Port 1992

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Taylor's 1992 Vintage Port is unquestionably the greatest young port I have ever tasted. It represents the essence of what vintage port can achieve. The color is an opaque black/purple, and the nose offers up fabulously intense aromas of minerals, cassis, blackberries, licorice, and spices, as well as extraordinary purity and penetration. Yet this is still an unformed and infantile wine. If Chateau Latour made a late-harvest Cabernet Sauvignon, I suspect it might smell like this. In the mouth, the wine is out of this world, displaying layer upon layer of concentrated black fruits backed by well-integrated tannin and structure. This is a massive, magnificently rich, full-bodied port that will be far more flattering in its youth than were such Taylors as the 1983, 1977, or 1970. It possesses awesome fruit, marvelous intensity, and lavish opulence, all brilliantly well-delineated by the wine's formidable structure. This monumental 30-50 year port is a must purchase for port aficionados.! Also noteworthy is the fact that the 1992 Taylor commemorates the 300th anniversary of this firm, as evidenced by the special bottle Taylor used for this port."

FALSTAFF: "Tiefe Farbe, opak, zarte violette Ränder. Intensive schwarze Beerenfrucht, unterlegt mit pfeffrigen Gewürznuancen, dunkle Kirschen, mineralisch, ein Hauch von Lakritze. Am Gaumen dicht und straff, klassische, perfekte Textur, feinste, aber sehr massive Tannine, Anklänge von Brombeeren und Kirschen, ein großer Wein von unerhörter Länge, beginnt nun seine erste Trinkreife zu erlangen, hat aber noch viele Jahrzehnte vor sich."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "I do not drink much Port. Frankly, unless a Port is 40-50 years of age, in most cases, it's too young for me to enjoy. On the one hand, this was no exception. On the other hand, I get the quality. For tasters willing to wait 25 more years, they will reap the reward of an incredible wine. This is still inky, black in color. The wine is dense, giving you the choice of eating it, or drinking it. It was amazingly sweet, yet not cloying. There was a beautiful purity of black, dark red and blue fruits with raisins and chocolate that would be hard not to miss. The wine paints your teeth, gums and palate black purple. But it remains almost unformed at this youthful stage."

WINE SPECTATOR: " Fresh and lively, with raisin, spice and hints of blackberry. Full-bodied and very tight, with plenty of tannins. Very long. Needs to open. '91/'92 Port retrospective. Best after 2008. 6,200 cases made."

DECANTER: "Deep and opaque. Still going through an awkward adolescence on the nose with much more to give. Lovely rich, fleshy fruit – powerful with bittersweet chocolate intensity, good depth and a wonderful finish."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Deep brick-garnet. Multi-layered nose, led by herb notes from stems, smoke, dried blackberry and rocky mineral notes. Rich, sweet-savoury black, liqueur fruit on the palate, with Taylor’s typical firm tannic structure. Savoury and intense, with an underlying minerality. I can understand why the vintage was declared."