2024 Vintage Port Receive Outstanding Scores For Taylors, Fonseca & Croft

The 2024 vintage port declaration is a landmark moment. Only the second general declaration since 2011, it follows a growing critical consensus that 2024 produced fruit of extraordinary quality across the Douro Valley. Four wines from the Fladgate Partnership have been declared this year, covering Taylors, Taylors Sentinels, Fonseca and Croft, and early critical scores suggest this is a vintage worth taking seriously. Here is our assessment of each wine.

2024 Taylors Vintage Port

The flagship Taylors declaration draws on fruit from Terra Feita and Junco in the Pinhao Valley, alongside Quinta de Vargellas in the Douro Superior. Around 5,000 cases declared in total. The wine shows the hallmark precision and structure that has defined Taylors great vintages, with concentrated black fruit of real depth alongside some of the finest tannins in the vintage. What strikes tasters most is the purity, a quality that runs through the entire 2024 vintage but reaches its clearest expression here.

Jancis Robinson awarded 19/20, noting the wine's "great purity and length." Richard Mayson gave 18.5/20, describing it as pure and precise with the balance and poise to age for decades.

This is a wine built for the cellar. If you are buying to lay down, read our guide to storing port wine and our guide to decanting vintage port before opening. For food pairing ideas when the time comes, see our Taylors vintage port pairing guide.

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2024 Taylors Sentinels Vintage Port

The Sentinels is a relatively recent addition to the Taylors portfolio, produced in the best years from four properties in the Pinhao Valley: Terra Feita, Junco, Eira Velha and Casa Nova. Around 2,600 cases declared. This is the third consecutive vintage of the wine and by all critical accounts the finest so far, showing greater concentration and depth than either 2020 or 2022 while retaining the accessibility and elegance that defines the Sentinels style.

Designed to be more approachable earlier than the flagship Taylors, the Sentinels still carries genuine ageing potential. Jancis Robinson scored 17.5/20, noting the wine should develop well over 15 to 20 years. Richard Mayson also scored 17.5/20, praising its lovely pure berry fruit and supremely elegant finish.

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2024 Fonseca Vintage Port

Fonseca is one of the great names in vintage port and the 2024 declaration may be the finest release from this house in a generation. Drawn from Santo Antonio and Cruzeiro in the Pinhao Valley with additional fruit from Panascal downstream, around 3,600 cases declared in total. The wine combines the perfume and elegance that is the Fonseca signature with a depth and concentration that tasters have found remarkable even by the standards of this exceptional vintage. For background on the Fonseca house style, see our guide to Fonseca Guimaraens vintage port.

Richard Mayson was unusually effusive, scoring the wine 19.5/20. Jancis Robinson awarded 18/20, noting the wine's freshness and purity of fruit alongside real underlying power. This is a wine for patient collectors, built to develop over the long term.

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2024 Croft Vintage Port

Croft is the smallest declaration of the four, with just 1,600 cases drawn from Quinta da Roeda, the house's principal estate just upstream from Pinhao. The wine takes a different stylistic direction from the Taylors wines, offering a more opulent, approachable character with soft supple tannins and generous plum and damson fruit. Where Taylors 2024 is built for very long ageing, Croft 2024 is designed for drinking over the medium term and offers real pleasure earlier.

Richard Mayson scored it 17.5/20, describing it as exuberant yet precise. Jancis Robinson gave 17/20, praising the silky tannins and vibrant freshness that give the wine its distinctive character.

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The 2024 Vintage In Context

The 2024 declaration is only the second general vintage port declaration since 2011, following the 2016 declaration which was widely praised. A general declaration, in which multiple houses simultaneously announce a vintage, is a relatively rare event that signals exceptional quality across the Douro Valley rather than just at individual estates. For a full explanation of how the declaration process works, see our guide to declaring a vintage port.

What unifies the 2024 wines is a quality of purity and finesse that critics are finding across the vintage. The tannins are described as fine and precise rather than heavy, the fruit is concentrated without being overblown, and the structure in the best wines suggests very long ageing potential. For collectors, this is a vintage that rewards buying young.

For a full guide to vintage port years and declarations, see our vintage port year guide. To explore the full 2024 collection, browse our 2024 vintage port collection.

For the original declaration announcement, see our 2024 vintage port declaration news.

All wines are available to buy now. Stock is limited on several expressions. For more on vintage port styles and how to choose, see our complete guide to port wine styles. For the finest vintage expressions in our range, explore our old and rare port collection.