1994 Quinta do Noval Nacional vintage port
Posted: 11:55 Tue 23 Sep 2008
An ex-cellars bottle. 190 cases produced (compared to the normal 250 and the peak of nearly 300 in 1996). Interestingly, Christian Seely mentioned that in a normal year of production of 250 cases, around 150 are kept in the Quinta's cellars and are intended to be used by the owners and managers of Noval to support the profile and reputation of the wines in future years. A more youthful colour than the regular '94, holding red right into the rim. Still youthful on the nose with little development. Fine and smooth into the mouth but then the acidity dominates - almost painfully - until it fades back to allow layers of red fruits and plums through in the mid-palate. Long, long, long aftertaste of Christmas Cake that just seems to go on forever until everyone else at the tasting has moved on to the next wine and left me behind. Decades from perfection yet, but this seems to me to be a wine that will get there. 98/100 after 4 hours in the decanter on 15 March 2007.