“It’s like a whole dinner party in the morning session, from Champagne to Port,” said Wine Spectator senior editor and Port taster James Molesworth to the New York Wine Experience audience. “And of course, dinner parties are made by their guests.”
One of that day’s guests was Adrian Bridge, CEO of the Fladgate Partnership, the holding company that owns Taylor Fladgate, Fonseca and Croft Port houses. (In 2023, it added still Portuguese wines to its collection.) While many wine lovers and winemakers lead multidimensional lives, Bridge’s is particularly amazing. “He had a successful banking career before entering the family business in 1988,” Molesworth said. “Along the way, he has competed on [the United Kingdom’s] bobsled team, done six years of military service and made a few attempts at climbing Mount Everest.” Bridge also spearheaded the Porto Protocol, begun at a summit with former U.S. President Barack Obama, to help the wine industry find solutions to climate change.
Bridge explained that Taylor Fladgate is a legacy operation. “My wife and I represent the 13th generation of a family business, and we have three children. So of course, no pressure at all on them,” he quipped.
Much about Taylor Fladgate remains traditional, including its terraced old vineyards and grape stomping at harvest.
Bridge has invested in making the Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a travel destination. “In the last few years, we’ve seen a record number of Americans coming to visit Portugal, not only because it is beautiful,” Adrian said. Why then? “[The Portuguese] are very friendly people; they all speak English,” he said, jokingly adding, “And the Portuguese haven’t really upset anybody in the world since about the 15th century.”
To attract visitors, Bridge has built Porto’s Yeatman Hotel and World of Wine (WOW), a cultural district with museums, restaurants and wine bars, as well as a school and a retail arcade, all dedicated to Portuguese wine, chocolate, cork production and more.
Bridge is no stranger to the Wine Experience tastings, and this year he shared the Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port 2003 (94 points, $92) with the crowd. He recalled that 2003 brought heavy rain followed by an August heatwave, which can concentrate the fruit. “And now as a result, we get this rather stylish wine with plums, spices, hints of violets—always a trademark of a great Taylor Fladgate vintage,” Bridge said. “It’s a little bit like having a heavenly liquid in the mouth, and it’s not yet midday. I want to leave you with this thought: Port drinkers never get drunk; they simply become fortified.”
