New with a story 1925 Taylor Fladgate Vargellas

[Mooooony]

Hi Everyone, Joe from Vermont. I am new to the site and new to the world of Port as well. I have come in possession of a bottle of 1925 R Taylor Fladgate Yeatman Vargellas Port.The short version of the story behind the bottle is it was a gift to a friend of mine back about 30 or 40 years ago (possibly longer). This bottle was just recently given to me. I could not find much information on the net, I did receive an email from Taylor Fladgate themselves,see below.
Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your email regarding a bottle of 1925 Vargellas Port. This bottle is a collectors’ item in that it is very rare and was only produced by the family for the family. It was not declared, nor do we as a family company have any bottles of this particular wine. If we had to give it a commercial value, then the closest classic vintage to it is the 1924 or the 1927 which would give it a value of possibly 300 to 400 USD, but frankly its rarity is its value.

I would pull the cork and enjoy it with your Thanks Giving Turkey or Christmas Lunch. I do not have any information on the wine, other than it would have been made by Frank Yeatman at that time.
Kind regards,
Chris Forbes

[KillerB]

Hello Joe,

Welcome to The Port Forum, it's good to have you on here especially with a nice story to tell. I can't tell you anything abou the Port but hope that it's as good as it sounds. However, now you're here we can tempt you with other Ports

Cheers,

Alex

[nick]

I am very new here as well-I have some advice though-if the label is in any sort of decent condition-trying to preserve it may be next to impossible but you may be able to photograph it and preserve that forever-was there any proper label on it?-I would love to know and if you can photograph it maybe you can post it here for all to enjoy--as you well know Vargellas is where the backbone of Taylor comes from-the bottle you have is from just that single Quinta and is made when the year is not great amongst all the quinta's but I suppose that in rare instances the wine of that single quinta could be as good or even better than in a vintage year. Please correct me if I am wrong-I am surely not an expert-I am just a big Port fan and labels and capsules to me can be a very big part of the rarity of wine in some instances. I have a bottle of 55 Taylor Fladgate vintage bottled in Britain by Army and Navy Stores and on the capsule there is an army man and a navy man facing each other with there flags and the color of the capsule was a gorgeous purple color----Hello everyone my name is Nick-I live on Long Island in New York-My friend and myself have opened some great bottles of Port-Thanks for admitting me.

[KillerB]

Nick,

Welcome to you as well.

You are correct that sometimes a single quinta Vintage Port (SQVP) can outstrip a fully declared vintage and Vargellas is one of the best SQVPs that are available. But then again Taylor's is one of the best Vintage Ports available. The other quinta that provides some good results for Taylor is Terra Feita which is, in my opinion, harsher than Vargellas but helps provide the steel for the main vintage. We have yet to do our own blend of Terra Feita and Vargellas from the same vintage but it's on the cards when we get the right bottles together. 1988 looks likely but 1987 could be magical.

Good to see you've got an Army and Navy bottling and 1955 should be fantastic Port.

Cheers,

Alex

[g-man]

I am very new here as well-I have some advice though-if the label is in any sort of decent condition-trying to preserve it may be next to impossible but you may be able to photograph it and preserve that forever-was there any proper label on it?-I would love to know and if you can photograph it maybe you can post it here for all to enjoy--as you well know Vargellas is where the backbone of Taylor comes from-the bottle you have is from just that single Quinta and is made when the year is not great amongst all the quinta's but I suppose that in rare instances the wine of that single quinta could be as good or even better than in a vintage year. Please correct me if I am wrong-I am surely not an expert-I am just a big Port fan and labels and capsules to me can be a very big part of the rarity of wine in some instances. I have a bottle of 55 Taylor Fladgate vintage bottled in Britain by Army and Navy Stores and on the capsule there is an army man and a navy man facing each other with there flags and the color of the capsule was a gorgeous purple color----Hello everyone my name is Nick-I live on Long Island in New York-My friend and myself have opened some great bottles of Port-Thanks for admitting me.

Welcome to two new members,

not to hijack joe's thread, but Nick, we are always looking for more fellow port drinkers in the NY tastings.

Please feel free to chime in and we would love to share a few bottles.