1987 Quinta do Noval Nacional

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
Forum rules
Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
Post Reply
User avatar
Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14880
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

1987 Quinta do Noval Nacional

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

70% opaque (but the lighting was poor); deep red and with a bricking rim. Red licorice on the nose, with stewed purple damsons - inviting and sweet. Sweet and mature, full of bruised plums and black licorice on the palate. Concentrated - perhaps too concentrated - and powerful. The tannins are almost fully integrated with bruised apple acidity providing a counter-point to the huge, powerful stewed fruit. Bruised apples show again on the aftertaste, and eventually fade to allow an immensely long finish of black licorice to shine through for a full 5 minutes.

Clearly this is unbalanced, but could be suffering from a mid-life crisis (in much the same way as the Taylor 1985 was until recently) but there is such a concentration of sweet fruit that I will hope for a better showing in 5-10 years time. 88/100. Drunk 30-Aug-12. Decanted 4 hours.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Post Reply