Single Quinta Vintage Port

This is another type of vintage port from Taylor's, a single quinta wine from their top vineyard - Quinta de Vargellas from the 1986 vintage. Most port is blended from the wines made from the fruit of many vineyards. All the Port vineyards in the Douro are classified by a system going back to the mid 18th century (well before the Bordeaux classification). This system shares some similarities with the Echelle des Cru mentioned in the entry about Bouzy Rouge, ensuring that the better quality sites planted with the best grapes get the highest prices. The system also set maximum yields, with the higher classified vineyards having a larger quota (of better grapes).
Normally vintage port, like champagne, is blended from a number of vineyards. When there is a good year which is uneven in the vineyards supplying a port house, they have an option of bottling the wine from a single vineyard separately and declaring a single quinta port. Often the single quinta port is from the flagship quinta of that company. In this instance, Taylor's flagship qunita is Qunita de Vargellas and is suppose to give a scent of violets to the Taylor vintage ports. Alas, my nose is not particularly sensitive to the smell of violets.