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1931 Quinta do Noval Nacional

Posted: 09:55 Sun 30 Dec 2007
by Alex Bridgeman
English bottled by Justerini & Brooks; purchased via auction from a notable collector. Slightly deeper colour than the regular '31 vintage tasted alongside it but otherwise an identical dark brown centre with orange rim. On lifting this to my nose I felt my heart sink. The nose was dominated by thick, black treacle and cabbage soup. I have smelt similar in other wines and have always put this down to bottle stink - which has blown off after a few hours but we didn't have a few hours. What a disappointment. Little immediate flavour on entry, but a thick and lovely texture. The mid-palate brings the bottle stink flavours, but behind these are leather, roasted meat and a touch of heat. The aftertaste glides in slowly , building on a gentle structure of fruit. What a shame about the bottle stink that started to fade by the time we left but was still the dominant feature. This caused me to mark the wine much lower than it might have achieved, but I couldn't really get past it. Shame. 7/7 on Tom's scale or 90/100.

Posted: 01:51 Wed 02 Jan 2008
by EricD
The Horror! The Horror! But hey, at least you had the opportunity to try it, right?

Posted: 16:57 Wed 02 Jan 2008
by DRT
Alex,

Please tell me this is the same disappointing bottle you had in mid 2007? I can't imagine how distressed you would be if this has happened to you twice :shock:

Derek

Posted: 16:59 Wed 02 Jan 2008
by Conky
Does anyone have a good idea how many of these bottles still exist?

Posted: 17:02 Wed 02 Jan 2008
by DRT
Less than 2999 on the basis that they only produce 250 cases(ish) and we know Alex has had one bottle :wink:

Posted: 09:33 Thu 03 Jan 2008
by Alex Bridgeman
Derek T. wrote:Please tell me this is the same disappointing bottle you had in mid 2007? I can't imagine how distressed you would be if this has happened to you twice
This was the bottle I tasted in March 2007 - I just posted the tasting note so that we could extend the run of Nacional vintages on the TN index.

It's only happened to me once, I've only tasted the Nacional 1931 once!

Alex

Posted: 00:11 Sat 05 Jan 2008
by Overtired and emotional
This post illustrates a terrible dilemma. How long do you keep a 'trophy wine' (forgive the vulgarity) or spend on one, knowing that the odds must be against it having retained the qualities it had in its prime?

My wife thinks this about me, I believe.

Posted: 08:56 Mon 07 Jan 2008
by Axel P
Alex,

I can only stress your TNs as they were very close to my own ones that night. The 31 regular Noval VP was my winner of that event, very closely followed by the 63 Nacional.

This experience however showed me, that you shouldnt always go by the label...

Axel