2007 Quinta do Noval

[Alex Bridgeman]

Very dark red with a solid rim; opaque. Full blackcurrant nose with a slight lime-acidic twist. Soft entry, restrained but full of brooding promise. Huge presence of fruit hidden in the background. Fantastic balance, with round and ripe tannins. Big, dry aftertaste and a long dry finish. This is super port. 92+/100. Drunk 29 Sep 2011.

[Chris Doty]

Great note. This is my top pick in 2007 by a decent margin. Sadly, I find all VPs greatly overpriced on release (for instance, virtually any bottle of 1970 VP at auction trades within ~10% of the 2007 Noval bought at retail), so I haven't added any to my collection yet, but am on the lookout for a ~$45 a bottle closeout sale (which is bound to happen at least in the next 30 years).

What decanting regimen was employed?

[Alex Bridgeman]

I also had this as my top port from 2007. I bought 6 on release and will probably pick up another 6 if priced keenly.

Rob brought this bottle so he'll have to comment on the decanting regime. However, I did take the remnants home with me and enjoyed the remaining glass at home a couple of days later when it was just fabulous.

[RAYC]

Decanted @ 10.00am through unbleached cheesecloth into empty 1litre glass highland spring bottle, back into bottle @ 5.00pm

When i tasted this at BBR last year, i went straight out to buy a couple of bottles for drinking young.

Nearly a year later, this was the second of those bottles and whilst it was still showing well, it just didn't feel quite so much fun or exciting to drink as previous experiences - not quite as voluptuous as it was last year, those deep, smooth, mouth-coating violet flavours had just become a bit rougher and a bit dryer, the subtlety and finesse of it marginally blunted, the attractive and nuanced perfumed lavendar nose that i remember was slightly lost or just simply overpowered at this stage by huge primary fruit.

But i'm being hyper-critical with an obviously great port that blew me away last year, and remains my favourite young-un. I'm sure there's time to open another bottle in the next 6 months if you wanted to check up on it, but i would hesitate before opening any more of my own bottles before 2025ish at this stage (unless i can justify it as an academic learning experience).

***(**) on the Broadbent scale.

[Chris Doty]

When i tasted this at BBR last year, i went straight out to buy a couple of bottles for drinking young.

Agreed -- the bottle at the Noval tasting was mind blowing. The 2007 Noval will likely always serve as my benchmark for the heights that young port can achieve. It also convinced me beyond doubt that it was absurd to spend 3X (let alone 30X) on a bottle of Nacional.