Taylor's

Taylor's Port cellars lie in the heart of historic Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from the old centre of Porto. They house most of the company's reserves of wood-aged Port and its Vintage Port cellars. These long, cool, dark lodges, with thick granite walls and high ceilings, keep an even temperature all year, so the wines age slowly and acquire the complex aromas of maturity.

Wines age either in casks or in vats. Casks, seasoned oak barrels of around 630 litres, are used mainly for the 10, 20, 30 and 40-Year-Old Tawnies, of which Taylor's is the leading producer: closer contact with the wood brings out notes of butterscotch, walnut and fine oak more quickly. Vats, holding at least 20,000 litres, give less wood contact and are used for fruitier styles such as First Estate Reserve and LBV. Thousands of vessels are looked after by a team of specialist coopers.

Each year a small part of the wine evaporates, the "angel's share", concentrating the flavours of older Tawnies and causing the black Baudoinia compniacensis fungus to grow on the lodge roofs. Below the cellars, in tunnels, Vintage Ports age in bottles lying horizontally until they are labelled and cased.

The cellars can be visited all year, and the visit can be completed with lunch at the Barão Fladgate restaurant or a stay at The Yeatman, the 5-star hotel across the road.

In former times the wine came down the river to Gaia in the spring after the harvest, to escape the Douro heat and the "Douro bake". Today, with insulation and air moisturising, the same conditions are replicated at the Quinta da Nogueira lodges near São João da Pesqueira, where some Taylor's Ports now age.