It’s a good way to start out a New Year and a new blog with a great port like Taylor’s Quinta de Terra Feita 1996.
Before I get into talking about the wine, I’ll mention a little bit about why I started this blog. I already blog at Strange Attractor with my partner Suw Charman, but we write about new media, journalism, public relations, blogging – in short, our day jobs. This is to write about everything else, all my other interests: Wine, wilderness backpacking, food, writing, books, travel, music. I guess it’s also to encourage myself to think about those things a little more and work a little less.
Ok, enough about that. That’s what an about page is for, right? Back to talking about wine in general, and this port in particular. I love vintage port, and a good Taylor’s vintage can be sublime. Why does sublime have to cost so much? A good bottle of Taylor’s vintage can set you back well over $100 (£60), but a single quinta vintage is usually half that.
I bought a 1985 Taylor’s vintage for a special occasion a few years back for about that. I can’t vouch for that port because it’s cellaring at my parent’s waiting for the right special occasion. Well, cellar is a bit of an overstatement. Yes, it is their cellar, but a basement in Illinois is hardly a posh wine cellar in the European vein. I have had a Kopke 1985 vintage which is good value money: Rich, smooth with the whole blackcurrant, raisin and a hint of tobacco that a good vintage promises. 1985 was supposed to be a stellar year for port, a classic year in fact, although from what I’ve heard, the wines haven’t always lived up to that promise. Fingers crossed that my 1985 Taylor’s lives up to the reputation.
My parents and I traveled to Porto in September 2005. I wanted to treat them for their 40th anniversary, and we learned a lot about Port wine as we went from port house to port house. Port makers do not declare vintage every year, only the years that meet a certain standard. It used to be that the houses declared vintage independently, but now there is a port wine trade association that determines whether a year meets the standard to declare vintage. Vintage is declared only during amazing years.
Taylor has two quintas, two vineyards, from which they will blend to create a vintage port: Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta de Terra Feita. As the Winedoctor says, Quinta de Vargellas forms the backbone of Taylor’s vintage. Suw and I have had a glass of Quinta de Vargellas at our favourite wine bar, Wine Wharf down in Borough Market. At £7 a glass, it’s a bit of an indulgence, but it was wonderful. It’s velvety and smooth, just like a good vintage should be.
It’s not as common for Taylor to make a single quinta from Terra Feita, but this 1996 was excellent, especially for £19.95 a bottle. I hate to bang on about prices, but this is a stellar, no a sublime, bottle of wine without that sublime price tag. Rich, smooth, strong. We had it with friends to celebrate a New Year and the anniversary of a couple of friends who met at the same dinner last year. It was a worthy bottle of wine for a special occasion.
I’m so pleased to see you start up your own blog, honey. Wonderful first post! I hope you enjoy yourself here.
I bought a bottle of Taylors Quinta de terra feita, for my girlfriend in 2007. We tried to open it the other day and the cork snapped so I cant actually get to the port now. How do I go about getting a replacement. I dont have a receipt and the place I perchased from has now closed.
Don’t give up on it if the cork breaks…Try using one of these to get the rest of the cork out:
http://www.corkscrewsonline.com/images/prong2.jpg
if the worst comes to the worst you might ‘cork’ the wine a little trying to get it out but just run the port through a bit of muslin or tights or something to filter it, It will be fine!
Antes de mais boa noite….
Segundo constatei, o Taylor’s Port produzido nas íngremes encostas do douro na Quinta de Terrafeita é um dos mais conceituado vinhos do porto do mundo. Até aqui tudo bem. O que a maior parte dos consumidores não sabem e como o vinho chega até eles mas, eu por experiência própria vou documentar o dia a dia dos trabalhadores e das pessoas humildes que só estão lá para ganhar dinheiro, e só com essas pessoas humildes é que as uvas são vindimadas, com muito esforço e suor são levadas na maioria das vezes as costas ate carrinhas…e como se não bastasse, os mesmo trabalhadores que fazem um grande esforço físico de dia ainda tem que pisar as uvas a noite. Até aqui tudo bem, dizem vocês para os vossos botões.
Ora a Quinta da Terrafeita em si tem 3 “rogas”, cada uma com o seu rogador…são elas a do Cruzeiro, A de Terrafeita de cima e a de Terrafeita de baixo, sendo o rogador da Terrafeita de cima também o feitor de toda a Quinta em si. este mesmo senhor que sendo casado e pai de filhos, em plena vinha assedia as mulheres que andam a vindimar tendo conversas porcas e só de conteúdo sexual, uma delas era a minha namorada, com 21 anos e ele com 50 e muitos anos. Mas como nenhuma das mulheres lhe dava trela e vingava-se nas pessoas que por sua vez conseguiam ter algo com essas mesmas mulheres. Ora como eu namorava com a rapariga que amo, ele decidiu vingar-se. ameaçou varias vezes que me mandava embora, separava-nos sempre e punha-me a fazer os trabalhos mais difíceis e mais forçoso. Tirando o facto de que, nos trabalhadores humildes que somos, éramos desprezados, tratados como lixo, como animais, e acreditem que é bem verdade…passaram-se estas duas semanas e na terça-feira a noite, não havendo lagares a noite fui descansadinho tomar o meu banho para estar depois um pouco com a minha namorada, mas esse feitor de nome João decidiu ir chamar-me para ir para um lagar para a roga do Cruzeiro, onde só eram precisas 3 pessoas.
Eu lá fui, chateado por me terem tirado a noite a dizer que havia falta de pessoa, quando não é a minha surpresa chegarmos la, e o pessoal que haveria de andar a trabalhado naquele mesmo lagar tinham dito que não eram precisos, tendo ido para o café das redondezas ver o Benfica e é claro que como eu detesto injustiças falei, que dizer uma pessoa trabalha o dia inteiro, na maioria das vezes a acartar caixas as costas a subir encostas, e a noite ainda temos que fazer o trabalho dos outros para eles estarem no bem bom a ver futebol?.
Na Quarta feira de manha, depois de fazer a chamada o caseiro manda-me embora, sem mais nem menos, a dizer que não tinha que dar motivos a ninguém e que manda embora quem quiser à hora que quiser. Agora em plena consciência digam se isto está certo, pensem que a cada golada de vinho do porto Taylor’s que bebem foi preciso muito esforço e suor pela nossa parte, porque o vinho chega a vocês por causa de nos, sem nós não havia vindimas e vocês não bebiam, e ainda somo tratados a baixo de cão, e ninguém se lembra que ele chega a vocês através de nós. e se não acreditarem nisto, então proponho que sejam vossas excelências a ir fazer as vindimas nas mesmas condições que nos fomos e depois digam algo.
Abraço com sincero desprezo a Taylor’s Port. Boa Noite!!
First of all … good night.
According noticed, Taylor’s Port produced in the steep slopes of the Douro Quinta de Terrafeita is one of the most prestigious wines of the port in the world. So far so good. What most consumers do not know is how the wine comes up to them but from experience I’ll document the daily life of workers and humble people who are only there to make money, and only those people who are humble the grapes are harvested, with much effort and sweat are mostly taken back up … and how vans are not enough, even workers who make a day of great physical effort still has to tread the grapes at night. So far so good, you say to your buttons.
Now Quinta da Terrafeita itself has 3 “rogas,” each with its rogador … they are the Cruise, A, Terrafeita Terrafeita top and bottom, of being the rogador Terrafeita also the top maker of all Thursday itself. this same man who is married and has children, was in full harass women who walk the harvesting nuts and just having conversations with sexual content, one of them was my girlfriend, and he was 21 years and 50 years. But as none of the women gave her leash and took revenge on the people who in turn could have something with these women. Now as I was dating the girl I love, he decided to take revenge. threatened several times to send me away, separated us forever and put me to work harder and more forcefully. Apart from the fact that, in workers who are humble, we were ignored, treated like dirt, like animals, and believe that is true … it took these two weeks and on Tuesday night, and there was the night presses descansadinho take my bath to be a little later with my girlfriend, but the foreman named John decided to call me to go to a mill pleads for Cruise, where only three people were needed.
I went there, upset that I had taken the night to say there was a lack of person, if not to my surprise it arrived, and the people who would walk the same mill that worked had said were not accurate, having gone to coffee nearby see Benfica and of course as I said I hate injustice, to say a person works all day, mostly hauling the boxes back to climb slopes, and the night still have to do the work of others for them be good to do well in football?.
On Wednesday morning, after making the call, the home sends me away, no more no less, saying he had no reason to give anyone who sends them away and they want any time you want. Now with a clear conscience say if this is right, think that every mouthful of port Taylor’s drinking took much effort and sweat for our part, because the wine comes to you because of us, without us there was no harvest and you did not drink, and even at low somo treated dog, and nobody remembers that he comes to you through us. and if they do not believe this, then I suggest that your excellencies are going to the harvest in the same way we went and then say something.
Hug a sincere contempt for Taylor’s Port. Good Night!
if the worst comes to the worst you might ‘cork’ the wine a little trying to get it out but just run the port through a bit of muslin or tights or something to filter it, It will be fine!