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Taylor’s David Guimaraens: Reinvigorating Vintage Port’s on-trade promise

The event saw some of the UK’s top sommeliers undertake a blind Vintage Port tasting challenge, with competitors sampling fortified wines from across six decades. After this initial task they have now been asked “to write a tasting note, suggest a recommended drinking window and advise on what dish they see each wine sitting against on their menu.”

The overall winner of the challenge will receive a two-night trip to Porto for two people, staying at the five-star Yeatman Hotel. Prizes are also up for grabs for second to fifth place.

• Read more: Tariff threat continues for EU producers

Prior to the challenge, the ever-ebullient David Guimaraens, technical director and head winemaker at Taylor’s, gave a talk which guided an audience of interested somms through the world of Taylor’s Vintage Port and how they can best communicate and present them to their customers.

Only 2% of Port produced at the historic house is Vintage Port. The unique drink is produced from wines drawn from one vintage year, whereas Tawny wine is a blend of vintage years. Guimaraens detailed that a shifting sales picture has emerged at Taylor’s.

He explained: “In the last 20 years, we’ve lost 30% of our volume, but that's at the commodity entry level… but we've never sold as much as what we call special category premium port as we do today.”

This premiumisation shift makes the house’s push to engage top sommeliers understandable, hoping to cement this emergent trend in the on-trade too.

The winemaker presented the Vintage Port range that somms could offer to their customers. Wines, he explained, that should be able to age more than 80 years. Classic Vintage Port is released during the best growing years or ‘declared years’. The best produce from three Taylor’s estates (Quinta de Vargellas, Quinta de Terra Feita and Quinta do Junco) is blended to create this product which Guimaraens believes has a well-defined density of structure.

During slightly less age-worth years, Single Quinta Port is made from produce from either Quinta de Vargellas or Quinta de Terra Feita. Typically, these wines can be drunk younger, showing aromatic complexity.

Finally, there is the recently introduced ‘non-classic’ Vintage known as Sentinel. This product is drawn from a range of Quintas in the Douro’s Pinhão Valley in the wetter Cima Corgo appellation, the first vintage of which was produced in 2022. This new product was, as Guimaraens explained, introduced to allow produce grown in non-vintage years not go to waste, as well as protect vineyards such as Vargellas, which are used for both Classic and Single Quinta Port, from overuse. There is also the added benefit of highlighting a terroir not solely expressed in previous Vintage Ports.

Guimaraens was also keen to demonstrate to the somms present how best to serve and present Vintage Port. He emphasised the importance of decanting the aged product. This is because Vintage Port is unfined and unfiltered and throws sediment as it ages. He warned against the dreaded cloudy serve.

Also illustrated was the theatric potential of using hot tongs to open Vintage Port. A demonstration opening was carried out (see picture), with Guimaraens explaining how in on-trade settings such a spectacle could attract other intrepid customers to also order Vintage Port.

The results of the Sommelier Challenge which followed Guimaraens talk will be announced this September. The winemaker will hope they absorbed all they could from his lecture and spearhead a reinvigoration of Vintage Port in the premium on-trade.

• On-Trade
• Port
• Sommeliers
• hospitality
• Douro
• Taylor’s Port
• Taylor’s Port Vintage Years UK Sommelier Challenge