On Thursday 16th May 2024, Neil most wonderfully organised a tasting of all of the Taylor Single Harvest Tawnies from 1961 to 1971 and added the bonus bottles of Taylor Golden Age 50YO Tawny, Taylor VVO - Platinum Jubilee Edition and Taylor VVO - Coronation Edition.
It was a splendid evening with some extremely delicious wines, and some wines which were merely delicious.
Another excellent evening! Thank you for organizing, Neil, and for coordinating the tasting the same week as the Taylor vertical so that I could attend 2 tastings during the same week in London.
I had heard that the Platinum Jubilee and Coronation Ports were very different, and that turned out to be true. I was one of the few who preferred the CE over the PJE - 7 of 10 preferred the PJE. One could be very happy drinking either, though.
We kept the 9 x Single Harvest Tawnies together as a flight, but in retrospect I think that wasn't really fair. The 1961 is - at least for me - a known quantity from Krohn and was bottled 10 years older than the others. The 50 Year Old Golden Age was bottled more recently than the other Single Harvests, but was at least of the same age. I wonder how the 1961 would have fared against the PJE and CE? The poor Golden Age had no chance.
The results of the SHT flight surprised me because they did not validate my memories. That might be due to bottle age on the earlier issuings at this point, but it's hard to say. In my memory, the 1964 was always the best of the SHTs with the new releases each year not being quite as good until the arrival of the 1970, which then rebounded back to the quality level of the 1964. But on this night, the 1964 was only saved from being DAL by the 1966, and the 1965 didn't fare much better. Completely backwards from my memories having tasted them all on release.
My scores ranged from 91 (the 1966) to 97 (the 1961) with the CE and 1970 both coming in close behind at 96.
Foot note: we opened another 1964 SHT on the last evening (Saturday) of the tour in Portugal the next week, and it was bigger and more powerful than this one. So there must be some bottle variation going on in these now, though that seems oddly early for a mere 10 years in bottle.
Can I just check that the 1961 was indeed bottled 10 years before the others. I thought that the 1964 was the first of these to come out in 2014/15 and that the 1961 and 1971 came out at roughly the same time in about 2021 to capture the 50 and 60yr anniversary/birthday markets. Unfortunately, not having been there I am not able to check the bottling dates from the labels. If the 1964 was the first as I suspect, then it may suggest a greater bottle variance from transportation and storage etc.
I think we’re all saying the same thing, at least as far as the bottling dates for the bottles we tasted. The 1964 was the first bottle from the series to be released in 2014. The 1961 was the last to be released in 2021.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Alex Bridgeman wrote:
I think we’re all saying the same thing, at least as far as the bottling dates for the bottles we tasted. The 1964 was the first bottle from the series to be released in 2014. The 1961 was the last to be released in 2021.
indeed - whether intentional or not, the '61 seems to be a special 60(59)yo "last hurrah" for the SHTs, alongside the 50yo '71, before the official 50yt took over with with new category/designations.
Doggett wrote: ↑11:48 Sat 01 Jun 2024
Can I just check that the 1961 was indeed bottled 10 years before the others.
My phrasing may have been confusing. The 1961 was bottled at ~60 years old, while the others were all bottled at ~50 years old. As Alex and Phil said, the 1961 was actually the most recently bottled of the series (alongside the 1971).
