Taylor Fladgate Porto 2000

If you’re looking for the definitive expression of a modern classic, the Taylor Fladgate 2000 Vintage Port is it.

The 2000 vintage was a landmark year—a millenium bottling that actually lived up to the hype. While some houses went for overt, jammy fruit, Taylor Fladgate stayed true to its iron fist in a velvet glove reputation. This is a wine built on a backbone of granite and grip.

It’s remarkably concentrated, flooded with flavors of blackcurrant and licorice, but held together by incredibly firm, linear tannins. The finish is endless, trailing off into notes of spicy cedar and forest floor.

It’s a powerhouse and just now beginning to enter its prime drinking window, but if you have the patience, it has another thirty years of evolution ahead of it.