1994 Quinta do Noval

[Alex Bridgeman]

Ex-cellars. 900 cases produced, the first vintage under Christian Seely's management and with production severely limited by the replanting programme he initiated. The colour shows a distinct sign of development when compared to the younger vintages. The wine is an attractive shade of red now and not the opaque purple of a youngster. The overwhelming youthful blueberry on the nose has taken a slight step back and is supplemented with an attractive floral note. In the mouth the wine takes a few moments to arrive before delivering an attractive acidic structure with plenty of fruit to balance this. The tannins in the wine don't make themselves obvious until immediately after swallowing, when they provide a lovely chocolate start to an aftertaste that eventually morphs into a milky coffee. On Tom's scale I gave this 8/8. I don't think that this will ever be a blockbuster of a wine but it has just reinforced my opinion of the 1994 vintage - that this is a vintage to drink now or to drink in 30 years. 93/100. Drunk March 2007.