One of the Oldest Purveyors of Port

Taylor Fladgate, one of the best-known producers of port, traces its history back to 1692, and to mark its 325th anniversary, the company launched a Historical Collection in 2017. This is series of specially blended, cask-aged ports that are presented in bottles that reflect the evolution of wine bottles in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The fourth and latest in the series is The Globe, a limited-edition reserve tawny port in a spherical bottle that was released in 2025 and is now available in Canada. Adrian Bridge, managing director and chairman of Taylor Fladgate, points out that 2025 is the company’s 333rd anniversary, representing an impressive third of a millennium in business.

The Historical Series was inspired by the way wine bottle shapes have evolved during the last few centuries. The bottles we are familiar with—almost all having straight sides or sides that enable wine to be laid down for aging—are only the latest wine bottle shape. They reflect the ability, perfected in the early 1800s, to mass produce bottles of the same shape and size–and importantly, of the same volume, so that people could be confident they were getting a certain volume of wine when they bought a bottle.

Until this was possible, each bottle was individually blown, so even though they might look the same, there were inevitably variations in shape, size, and volume. For this reason, it was illegal in many countries to sell wine by the bottle until standardized bottles could be produced.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, when port made its first big splash, especially on the British market but also in Europe and the American colonies, bottles were generally rounder, sometimes squat, sometimes onion shaped. At that time, wine was generally sold by the barrel—only to the well-off, of course—and people filled their own bottles from them. In taverns, wine was drawn from barrels in the cellar and served to customers in glasses or bottles.

It is these bottles that Taylor Fladgate has brought back to life—although, of course, these versions have a consistent volume. Taylor Fladgate’s The Globe is a spherical bottle with a tall neck that was known at the time it was popular, in the mid-1600s, as the shaft and globe style. Embossed with a 1692 crest, it’s an elegant object, as befits its elegant contents.

This tawny port is a special blend drawn from the big stocks of aged tawny port kept in Taylor Fladgate’s lodges in Oporto, Portugal. In the glass, it shows as brown with red-brick highlights, and it delivers aromatics rich in dried fruits, plums, and floral notes. The aromas replay on the palate, where they’re enhanced by spicy accents and some nuttiness on the finish. The complexity is impressive, and each sip reveals another facet. It has the sweetness you expect of port, but it’s reined in by the structure of the fruit and the well-calibrated line of acidity.

Taylor Fladgate The Globe Reserve Tawny Port is a wine you can buy by its appearance—not by the label, in this case, but by the shape of the bottle. It’s a fine object in itself, and it’s one of those bottles worth keeping when you’ve finished the delicious wine inside it.

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