Taylor Fladgate

Taylor's history begins in 1692, when Job Bearsley, an English merchant who owned The Ram Inn in London's Smithfield, arrived in Portugal. He first traded not in Port but in 'red Portugal', the wine of the Minho region. In 1744 Bartholomew Bearsley became the first British wine shipper to buy a property in the Douro, at Lugar das Lages near Régua; the company still owns it and commemorates the purchase in Taylor's First Estate Reserve Port. Joseph Camo, an American employee of the firm, was the only working partner in the Oporto house from 1808 to 1811. Joseph Taylor, who gave the firm its current name, was made a partner in 1814 and became sole owner of the firm in Portugal after the London partnership went into liquidation in 1826. In 1838 a partnership deed signed in Oporto between John Fladgate and Morgan Yeatman gave the firm its present name, Taylor Fladgate & Yeatman. John Fladgate bought Quinta da Roêda for the firm in 1844; he later bought it from the company for himself in 1862 and sold it to the house of Croft in 1889. Frank Yeatman, grandson of the first Yeatman partner, took on the rebuilding of Quinta de Vargellas, and from 1923 the company was managed by his son Dick and Dick's cousin Stanley Yeatman. After Dick Yeatman's death in 1966, his majority share passed to his wife Beryl, who invited her nephew Alistair Robertson to join the firm. Robertson, born in Oporto in 1937, launched Taylor's Late Bottled Vintage in 1970 with the 1965 vintage. Adrian Bridge arrived in Portugal in 1994 with his wife Natasha, Alistair and Gillyane Robertson's eldest daughter, and was formally appointed Managing Director in 2000.

• 1692: Job Bearsley founds the firm, which has remained independent ever since
• 1744: Bartholomew Bearsley buys Lugar das Lages, the first Douro property bought by a British wine shipper
• 1838: partnership deed between John Fladgate and Morgan Yeatman; the firm adopts the name Taylor Fladgate & Yeatman
• 2017: a limited-edition commemorative Port marks the 325th anniversary, in a bottle bearing the '4' and 'XX' symbol still used as Taylor's trademark

Taylor's Vintage Ports are blended from the firm's own quintas, Vargellas, Terra Feita and Junco, which the house calls the cornerstone of its success. Quinta de Vargellas, in the Douro Superior on the remote eastern reaches of the Douro, has been prized as a source of the finest Ports since the 1820s. Taylor's bought Lower and Middle Vargellas in 1893 from Domingos Burguets, the general contractor of the railway, and in 1896 bought Upper Vargellas from the Countess of Azambuja, merging the three properties into one. The original part of the estate forms a north-facing amphitheatre of terraced vineyard above the Douro, with the house, the winery and the estate's own railway station at its centre. Downstream lies the São Xisto vineyard, laid out using vinha ao alto, or vertical planting. Quinta de Terra Feita, bought in 1974, lies on the west bank of the River Pinhão in the heart of the original 1756 demarcation; Taylor's had been buying its wine since the previous century. Quinta do Junco, one of the historic Pinhão Valley vineyards, was bought in 1997 through a sealed-bid sale after Banco Borges & Irmão was merged into Banco Português de Investimento (BPI), which put the property on the market. Junco's wines are made in the lagares at Terra Feita, less than three kilometres away, and a small proportion has gone into the Taylor's Vintage Port blend since 2000. All three estates are ranked in the 'A' category reserved for the best Port vineyards.

• Vargellas Vinha Velha is selected from four old-vine plots, Polverínho, Renova do Depósito, Renova do Armazém and Gricha, with vines of around 80 to 120 years
• The oldest-vine plots account for over 15% of Vargellas's total production; Vinha Velha seldom accounts for more than about 2%
• The house describes Vargellas wines as elegant and scented, and Terra Feita's as dense, with blackberry and cassis fruit
• Quinta do Junco was awarded full feitoria status in the 1761 classification

Taylor's is dedicated entirely to Port and, unlike most other producers, does not market any other wine. Vintage Port is made only in declared years: the finest wines of the three estates age for two winters in oak vats before the declaration decision, and historically Taylor's has declared about three Vintage years per decade. By house custom the declaration is made on 23 April; 2024 was declared a Classic Vintage, the smallest release in Taylor's history and the first classic declaration in six years. In undeclared years Taylor's may bottle single quinta Vintage Ports from Vargellas or Terra Feita. Sentinels Vintage Port, a blend of wines from Taylor's historic Pinhão Valley properties, has been released for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 vintages. Late Bottled Vintage stays in wood for four to six years, against around twenty months for Vintage Port, so it is ready to drink when bottled. Chip Dry, first blended in 1934, is made from grapes grown in the Douro Superior, predominantly Malvasia Fina, and matured in oak vats for four to five years. After the Instituto do Vinho do Porto allowed age statements on old tawny labels in 1973, Taylor's was the first major house to launch a full range of 10, 20, 30 and 40 Year Old Tawnies. Its aged tawnies mature in seasoned oak casks usually holding around 630 litres in the cellars at Vila Nova de Gaia.

• Each year Taylor's releases a Single Harvest Port made 50 years previously; the first in the series was the 1964
• Scion, a pre-phylloxera cask-aged Port bought from a Douro family, reached the Vila Nova de Gaia lodges on 13 January 2010 and was launched in the autumn of 2010
• Golden Age 50 Year Old Tawny and VVOP, a Very Very Old Tawny Port, were both first released in 2022
• Taylor's says its 10 Year Old is the best-selling 10 Year Old aged tawny in the UK and its 20 Year Old the most popular in the United States

Taylor's is based in Oporto and the Douro Valley and is involved in every stage of production, from planting the vineyard to bottling. In 1927 Dick and Stanley Yeatman created the first varietal blocks at Vargellas, separate terraces each containing a different Douro grape variety, laying the foundation for Taylor's research library of single grape variety wines. At Junco, a return to traditional foot treading has improved the wines, and many patamares, the modern bulldozed terraces, have been replaced with vertical rows. Taylor's sustainable vineyard model is built on narrow terraces that each carry a single row of vines, inclined at 3° to balance rainwater run-off against soil penetration, and is designed to eliminate herbicides. In 2021 it presented a 1.5-metre narrow terrace, down from 2.3 metres, giving 36.5% more vines at the same vine spacing. The vineyards are dry farmed, relying solely on rainfall. Taylor's is a founder and mentor of the Porto Protocol, a global wine community launched in 2018 to share solutions to climate change. Some Taylor's Ports are aged in insulated lodges at Quinta da Nogueira near São João da Pesqueira.

• Oak vats normally hold at least 20,000 litres and are used for fruitier styles such as First Estate Reserve and LBV
• A cover crop sown alongside the vine rows grows between November and late spring and replaces herbicides
• Winery measures include a cleaning-in-place system and photovoltaic panels
• Taylor's First Estate Reserve, introduced in 1988, commemorates the 1744 purchase at Lugar das Lages

The Fladgate Partnership is a holding company with businesses in Port, tourism and distribution, and Taylor's is its original company. Taylor's bought Fonseca in 1949, and in 2001 the group acquired Croft. Krohn, a Port house known for its Colheitas, is also part of the group, which owns 500 hectares of vineyards. It opened The Yeatman hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia in 2010, with 89 rooms and 20 suites, and also owns the Vintage House Hotel in Pinhão. Its purchase of Ideal Drinks brought nearly 500 acres of vineyards outside the Douro, in Vinho Verde, Dão and Bairrada. Adrian Bridge is Managing Director and Chairman, David Guimaraens Technical Director and Head Winemaker, Chris Forbes Deputy Managing Director, Pedro Barbosa Viticulture Director and Tiago Machado Douro Winemaking Director.

• David Guimaraens has been Technical Director and Head Winemaker since 1991; the 1994 was the first Taylor's declared vintage made under his supervision
• Natasha Bridge was Chief Blender until 2013 and now serves as a Non-Executive Board Member
• The Yeatman hotel, opened in 2010, stands among the Port lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia
• The Fladgate Partnership's Port houses and founding dates: Taylor's (1692), Fonseca (1815) and Croft (1588)

Primary sources (producer's own site and its parent group's site): https://www.taylor.pt/en, https://fladgatepartnership.com/en/, https://fladgatepartnership.com/en/port-wines/, https://www.taylor.pt/en/about/who-are-we, https://www.taylor.pt/en/about/our-history, https://www.taylor.pt/en/about/meet-the-team, https://www.taylor.pt/en/about/philosophy, https://www.taylor.pt/en/about/sustainable-practices, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine-vineyards/quinta-de-vargellas, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine-vineyards/quinta-de-terra-feita, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine-vineyards/quinta-do-junco, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine-vineyards/lodges-cellars, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/late-bottled-vintage, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/chip-dry, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/classic-vintage, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/quinta-de-vargellas-vintage, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/10-year-old-tawny, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/20-year-old-tawny, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/scion, https://www.taylor.pt/en/visit-taylors/port-cellars, https://www.taylor.pt/en/visit-taylors/the-yeatman-hotel, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/vintage-port/vintage-port-years, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/vargellas-vinha-velha-vintage, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/quinta-de-terra-feita-vintage, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine-vineyards/sustainable-viticulture, https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/single-harvest, https://www.taylor.pt/en/news/taylors-announces-classic-vintage-2024-and-sentinels-2024. Secondary sources: Wine Spectator (https://www.winespectator.com/articles/taylor-fonseca-group-buys-croft-and-delaforce-port-houses-21004), The Drinks Business (https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/06/taylors-strengthens-tawny-stocks-with-krohn-takeover/), Wine Spectator (https://www.winespectator.com/articles/fladgate-expands-into-portuguese-table-wine-buying-ideal-drinks). Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs. Last verified 2026-10-12