Sat-Sun 29-30 Oct 2022 - A (Nearly) Complete Vertical of Quinta do Noval Nacional in Los Angeles

[Alex Bridgeman]

As some of you might have picked up from social media, I made a quick weekend visit to Los Angeles at the end of October. There have to be some benefits to being retired, so why not make travel one of them? The weather in LA in late October is usually warm and dry and this weekend was no exception. Daytime high was 23-25C and there was rarely a cloud in the sky.

I figured out that the last time I was in LA was 15 years ago in late October 2007. Things have changes in that time, especially at LAX! COVID meant all my visas and frequent traveller perks had expired so it took me about 2 hours to get through immigration but we got there in the end.

Once I was let into the country my next challenge was to figure out how to get an Uber out of the airport to my hotel. I did what everyone normally does, got out my phone and selected an Uber Comfort entered my hotel address and requested an immediate pick-up. The map on the Uber app flashed and put a big, black square over where I was standing and a message "Confirm pick-up location". I clicked to confirm and the big black square appeared again, with the message asking me to "Confirm pick-up location".

After a while I realised what was happening. LAX in trying to manage traffic while going through their reconstruction had turned one of their car parks into a taxi pick-up point. Passengers had to make their way to the car park. Any licensed cab or app-ride operator could only pick up from the car park. The car park was only a six minute walk from Tom Bradley International terminal so rather than wait 10 minutes for the free shuttle bus I opted to walk.

It took me 15 minutes to get to the car park, mostly because I got distracted by Starbucks on the way and found my UK Starbucks app worked perfectly well for payments in LA - result! Once in the car park I was able to order my Uber and all worked perfectly.

Marina del Rey harbour

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I stayed in the Foghorn Harbor Inn in Marina del Rey, 20 minutes from the airport, 10 minutes from my next day lunch appointment and 30 minutes from my Sunday lunch. I'd taken the early flight from Heathrow so landed a little after 1pm and arrived at the hotel about 4pm, in broad daylight. Not meeting anyone except for lunch over the next couple of days gave me the perfect opportunity to stay on UK time.

Back in the days when I used to travel to the US frequently, Ruth's Chris was my favourite steak House and by dint of careful planning, there was a branch 10 minutes away from my hotel. An early dinner at the bar watching game 1 of the World Series had me back at the hotel and ready for bed just as the sun was going down.

The only complaint from the whole day was that Ruth's Chris have dropped their shoestring fries from their menu! Those shoestring fries were amazing and one of the main reasons I used to eat there rather than any other steak house.

With cheesy potato bake and a glass of Cali red.

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[Doggett]

A very teasing build up… not a mention of a drink so far… despite a long flight and a visit to a steakhouse!

[Alex Bridgeman]

The next morning I woke around 2am, local time. Despite the fact it was Saturday morning I did a little work, caught up on emails, made a couple of calls to the UK (and Seattle) and as the sun came up I went for a walk to get some breakfast.

Palm trees on the beach

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The air was a little chilly at first but the sun soon warmed things up to around 20C. My route to breakfast took me along Venice Beach and north in the direction of Santa Monica pier. Even at 6.30am the beach was quite busy with small waves but a fair number of surfers already on the water. The Parks & Recreation team were busy on the sand raking it clean and clear, showing just a handful of footprints leading down to the water.

3 foot swell

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I managed to find somewhere to get a breakfast bagel and - surprisingly at least to me - an Earl Grey tea with cold pasteurised milk. The walk back went via Venice Canals to get me back to Marina del Rey farmer's market, held every Saturday from 9am to 1pm. This was my opportunity to get breakfast for the next day. The food on offer was pretty much all local, from within about 50 miles of LA. The fruit was very tasty, the prawn empanadas irresistible and the fresh pancakes fabulous (I may have had another breakfast!). After the farmer's market it was back to the hotel to get changed for lunch.

Local fruit and veg

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[Alex Bridgeman]

A very teasing build up… not a mention of a drink so far… despite a long flight and a visit to a steakhouse!

There was some Canard-Duchêne Champagne and some Graham 6 Grapes on the flight over, but nothing excessive. I don't remember what the Californian red was that I drank with my steak.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Wolfgang Puck

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Lunch was on Main Street in Santa Monica, at one of Wolfgang Puck's many restaurants. By now it was quite warm and I didn't feel like walking back to where I'd had breakfast so Uber it was.

I walked into the restaurant to be greeted by the most wonderful smell - rich, fruity, slightly spiced; almost as though someone had opened and decanted 20 bottles of fairly young Port.

Most opened with tongs

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By coincidence, that was exactly what had happened! Many of the bottles had been opened using tongs, heated on a custom made gas burner arrangement that was really impressive to see. One set of tongs could be heated while another was being used to open a bottle, while a third set could sit in a rack cooling after use on a bottle. The whole set up was designed to enable rapid opening of bottles in a way I could only watch with awe. I was so struck by the sight of this extremely professional approach to opening Port bottles that I entirely forgot to take any pictures.

I did manage one picture though, of the person who had invited me to lunch:

In charge of Noval since 1994

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[Alex Bridgeman]

The lunch menu

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The lunch was planned around a complete vertical of Quinta do Noval Nacional vintages from 1983 through to 2020, including the first showing outside the Quinta of the as yet unreleased 2015 vintage.

As yet unreleased 2015

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There is not yet a date planned for the release of the 2015 vintage but if it continues to develop and mature as expected there should be a small release at some point.

Christian also confirmed that the 2009 Nacional vintage had been wholly unsuitable for bottling as a vintage Port and was still sitting in cask at the Quinta. One day, perhaps, there will be a Nacional Colheita…

Flight 1, 1983 on the left

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The wines were tasted from oldest to youngest. The first flight of wines are shown above with the 1983 in the left-most glass and the 1987 in the right-most glass. I shall post tasting notes later but out of these wines the 1983 impressed me most and was a lovely drink. The 1987 was big, dark and closed still - it’s must surely start to mature one day.

[Alex Bridgeman]

1991 on the left, 1998 on the right

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I failed to take pictures of all the flights, although I do have pictures of every individual bottle and glass from start to finish. After the excitement of seeing the difference in colour between the "pre-AXA" vintages up to and including 1991, and the "AXA" vintages from 1994 onwards, I rather lost focus on the comparisons. Suffice it to say that all the wines were the same dark, brooding red. 1991 was pleasant enough; 1994 was deep, rich and luscious. Everything from 1994 or later will very happily sit in the cellar for another years. 1994-2011 are really very nice to drink today, if you like young Port. They are rich, fruity, well-structured and very serious wines.

2015 was not offered to the market in 2017 despite the fact it was an excellent Nacional vintage. It was held back because 2015 was not viewed by the producers and critics unanimously as having produced great wines. With a little more time in the Noval cellar, and with a little drip/tease marketing, Christian was confident that people would come to understand just how good the 2015 Nacional is. And it is good. Here's my tasting note:

Ex-cellars, a registered vintage of Noval Nacional but not yet released. This was the first time this wine has been shown outside Quinta do Noval.

A youthful rich and dense garnet colour, 70% opaque. Ripe but sharp fruit shows on the nose, fruit which is developing beautifully. Smoothly textured yet with a massive, good old-fashioned grip sitting within the smooth wrapping of the fabulously ripe fruit. The palate and finish have impressive complexity with liquorice root and floral perfume, which in turn gives way to an amazingly long finish, which is sweet and fragrant. A blockbuster of a wine which will need many years to fulfil its potential. 93/100. Tasted 29-Oct-22. Decanted 4½ hours.

Deep red colour

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Now it has to be said that I had been warned Americans at these tastings tend to sip and leave. And, indeed, this proved to be true. There were 40 people at this tasting and only one bottle of each wine to share between us. Despite the fact that some of the people at the tasting were the non-drinking partner of someone who was drinking, pours were tiny - I estimate they were about 15ml. Even worse was that not all the wine was poured so after all the samples had been poured there was still a little wine left in the decanter. Perhaps as much as 50ml in some cases.

At 4pm, as quick as a blink of an eye, the room cleared. We had started at 1pm and the tables were empty at 4pm. Empty, except for the two British guests (Christian had had to leave to go to a work dinner). We eyed each other. We eyed the decanters with their remaining contents. We eyed the staff who were clearing glasses which still contained wine...

We dived for the bar where the decanters stood. We introduced ourselves and spent the next 3 hours chatting over many, many glasses of Port. I am proud to say that the British guests ensured than none of the Port in the decanters went to waste. The staff often came to clear, but a couple of generous tips resulted in two seats at the bar being made available for us while the restaurant was set up for dinner service, and an endless supply of tap water.

Then it was time to return to my room and catch some sleep.

[MigSU]

Amazing tasting.

I swear, at first glance I thought it was Jeremy Clarkson that invited you!

[Glenn E.]

There were 40 people at this tasting and only one bottle of each wine to share between us. Despite the fact that some of the people at the tasting were the non-drinking partner of someone who was drinking, pours were tiny - I estimate they were about 15ml. Even worse was that not all the wine was poured so after all the samples had been poured there was still a little wine left in the decanter. Perhaps as much as 50ml in some cases.

Given what this tasting was and what it cost, this would have made me irate. I wasn't invited, and had I been invited I'm not sure that I would have accepted anyway, but had I been in attendance and only received 15 ml pours... wow.

I'm not sure I can write a tasting note from 15 ml. That's just crazy.

Even so, it looks amazing and I'm loving your recap!

[Alex Bridgeman]

15ml pours were overly small, especially since many glasses were not emptied by the person attending. It did make writing tasting notes more difficult than it should have been given you basically had two small sips of each wine - at least until everyone else had left and we each got a fairly decent pour out of the remnants in the decanters.

I have heard what some people paid for the tasting but, to be fair to the organisers, when I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation and took into account the food and the venue, the pricing seemed pretty reasonable.

At least it did for the younger wines we tasted at Chinois on Main...

[Alex Bridgeman]

The next morning I woke about 3am. It was dark outside but I opened the curtains so I could see the marina at night, lit up and looking quite pretty. The early start gave me a chance to type up my tasting notes from the previous day and I worked quite diligently transferring them from paper to computer. A couple of cups of tea and the prawn empanadas from yesterday's farmer's market kept me going.

As dawn started to lighten the sky people began to appear on the promenade between the beach and the hotel - joggers, cyclists and scooterists (whatever they should be called). About 7am I decided it was time to stretch my legs and wander round to the nearest Starbucks to get my early morning Earl Grey tea.

It was a little chilly, but the air was crisp. The streets were quiet at 7 o'clock on Sunday morning and the sky was completely clear. It was a beautiful morning for walking. I went through Venice Canals to get to Starbucks - one of the few parts of this area of Los Angeles I might consider to be attractive.

Serene and tranquil.

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I wasn't the only one out, taking advantage of the still air. I also came across this fisherman.

Waiting for his catch.

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With tea in hand I headed back to the hotel and got back to working on my notes. I had about 2½ hours before I had to check out of the hotel and head for Sunday lunch.

[Alex Bridgeman]

It took me couple of to finish typing up my tasting notes, which gave me just enough time to re-pack the few things I had brought with e on the tip and to order an Uber to take me to my lunch appointment. Lunch was at the very swanky Hotel Bel-Air. I've read about this hotel and the famous guests who have stayed there or got married there but never imagined I'd ever need to visit. But if you get the chance, it's worth going there for lunch or a drink - the grounds are stunning.

A glimpse of the grounds.

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The tasting that I was attending had been billed as "A Complete Vertical of Quinta do Noval Nacional" and it included several vintages I've not tasted before. I was particularly looking forward to the 1950 and the 1934. Neither were wines I'd tasted before. I was expecting great things from the Nacional 1934 given how astonishingly good the regular Noval '34 vintage is and the 1950 was a novelty - I drink so little 1950 Vintage Port anyway and have never seen a 1950 Nacional.

As before, the tasting was split into flights. This time the flights were 5 wines for the youngest and 4 wines for the oldest and we were tasting from youngest to oldest. Each flight was accompanied by food selected and prepared by Wolfgang Puck and his kitchen, designed to match the wines.

So many courses!

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The wines were all tonged open about an hour before being poured, youngest to oldest. Perhaps some of them could have used longer in the decanter to fully develop, but we had what we had. Included in the line-up today were a handful of regular Noval vintages, those being from 1955, 1950, 1945, 1934 and three bottlings of 1931. The 1931 bottlings were by David Sandeman of Glasgow, Fearon, Block, Ridges & Routh and by Quinta do Noval and stored in their cellars since bottling.

Before we started, Don gave us a little introductory speech which time had not allowed the previous day. Part of his introduction included holding up a large, blue covered book that most of us are familiar with and encouraging everyone attending to buy a copy.

Port Vintages in LA

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The first flight of day 2 comprised of the Nacional vintages 1982-1970. None of the wines in this flight particularly impressed me. My favourite was 1970 but 1982 was the pleasant surprise, only slightly weaker than 1970. The other wines were really disappointing considering how much a bottle would cost.

1982 on the left, 1970 on the right

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[Alex Bridgeman]

1967 on the left, 1962 on the right

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The second flight of the day saw the wines starting to perform. We were into the sixties and wow! did the quality now shine through! The tiny pours hampered our ability to allow the wines to really open up and develop and the rather eccentric use of Madeira chimney glasses for a Port tasting meant I ended up having to shuffle glasses around to be able to taste consistently from a decent shaped glass - but the wines were worth all the trouble! 1967 underperformed, it should show really well but it struggled. Perhaps a longer decant would have allowed it to show more. 1964 also should have been better. 1962 was superb, only a tiny shade behind the stunning 1963. But the eagle eyed among you will have spotted the vintage not yet mentioned. 1966. What a fabulous bottle that was. Just superb! It was also interesting to note that all five of these wines had been bottled in Oporto.

1960 on the left, 1950 on the right

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Flight 3 brought the first disappointment of the day. The 1950 Nacional was not in the line-up. The bottle had been held up in customs and would now be included in the next tasting being organised in February. Neither was the 1950 Noval in the line up; when tonged open the cork had revealed the bottle to be Cockburn 1950 and not Noval.

Never mind, these things happen. And a couple of the wines showed so well that they just demanded your attention. As good as the 1966 had been in the previous flight, the 1958 in this flight was every bit as good. The Nacional 1955 was even better and just stood out from its peers, it was an amazing bottle (and put the rather poor bottle of regular Noval 1955 to shame). The Harvey bottled Noval 1955 is the pale orange wine in the middle of the picture. But just look at that wonderful colour in the picture below of the 1955 in the decanter before the glasses were poured.

Best wine of the day

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[Alex Bridgeman]

Left to right: NN47, N45, N34, NN34

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This flight was a gut-wrenching disappointment. What should have been a stunning flight of amazing wines turned into a nightmare where both 1934s were undrinkable - and it should have been obvious that the NN34 was going to be a bad bottle. There is a reason why we tend to avoid Whitwham's recorked or reconditioned wines. These are so often bottles which were in poor condition before being taken to Whitwham's in the hope that Whitwham's could work some sort of miracle on the dead bottle.

Poor condition, but not a surprise

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The Nacional 1947 was reasonable, the Noval 1945 better, the Noval 1934 smelt of black molasses and diesel instead of being the wonderful drink I have had in the past. The Nacional 1934 was like licking the dirty wood in an unhygenic old Port cellar. It was truly horrible.

Left to right: NN31, Sandeman, FBB&R, Noval

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Thankfully the final flight had the wines showing on song once more. The Fearon Block bottled Nacional 1931 showed really well, still full of fruit and grip. Big, balanced and delicious. The David Sandeman bottled Noval 1931 was just a tiny bit better, just ahead of the Fearon Block bottled regular Noval 1931. The Noval bottled, Noval cellared (ex-cellars) bottle was a little more evolved but was a lovely wine and came with a label like nothing I've seen before.

Noval bottled

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[Alex Bridgeman]

So, in summary, I had an amazing opportunity to taste what I had hoped would be a complete vertical of Quinta do Noval Nacional vintages. On the positive side I tasted many vintages I've not tasted before, including the unreleased 2015.

On the downside the 1950 was missing and the 1934 was undrinkable. Given how much people paid to attend the tasting there were quite a few aspects of the organisation which would put me off becoming a regular paying customer. What was fantastic were the venues the food and the logistics, and the spectacle of Don opening the bottles with his Port tongs. The food really was absolutely superb.

Don with his tongs

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What left me feeling a uncomfortable was the missing NN50, the 1934 being a bottle which was recorked by Whitwham's and which had clearly lost all its colour being just a pale orange in the bottle. I disliked having such small pours and having to swap my glasses around if I didn't want to use madeira chimneys to taste Port. What i found really distasteful was the sight of Don and his team of 3 sommeliers (who had been given free places at the tasting in return for their very capable help in preparing, pouring and organising glasses) at the end of the tasting descending on the remnants in the decanters and pouring the contents into their 100ml sample bottles. Talk about a conflict of interest - what incentive is there for a sommelier to give a generous pour to the paying guests if that sommelier gets to take away what is left in the decanter?

In summary, it's very unlikely that I will ever be invited back to one of Don's tastings and even more unlikely that I would return if I had to buy my entry ticket to do so. The event really did remind me just how lucky we are in the UK with the tastings we do just for the delight of drinking fine wine with good friends.

But, if anyone is interested in paying to attend Don's next Port event, it will be in February when he plans to have 60 people participate in a "Magnum Madness" where he will open and pour 20 magnums with at least 1 from each decade 1970s-1890s.

[JacobH]

That is all fascinating to read. Thank you for posting! I don’t know “Don”: I presume he is a notable arranger of wine dinners and the like?

Many years ago, I did some experiments with different Port glasses and found that the level of the Port in the glass made a huge difference to how certain aspects of its smell are conveyed. I think with those tiny quantities in the bottom of those glasses, even top-of-the-range Ports might seem unduly distant and restrained compared to what one might expect with a normal sized serving. It looks like you had some Schott Zwiesel “official” Port glasses and those need at least 50ml to get a good aroma to me. I wonder if anyone makes extra small tasting glasses which might be more suitable for those tiny servings? But I suppose, at some point, it must not be feasible. The 20-mangums between 60 events sounds about on the limit to me: that’s less than 25ml a person.

Is that common in America? I’ve never been to a tasting there, although I’ve seen that for many beer tastings the standard serving is often 1 US fl oz which seems unfeasibly small by our standards!

In happier news, I am very pleased to see him using the Quinta do Noval branded tongs after buying a pair for myself in the lodge a couple of years ago, following a lengthy discussion about whether they were for actual use and not decoration! I was told that Christian Seely was a fan of tongs and made sure that the QdN ones were practical.

[MigSU]

What i found really distasteful was the sight of Don and his team of 3 sommeliers (who had been given free places at the tasting in return for their very capable help in preparing, pouring and organising glasses) at the end of the tasting descending on the remnants in the decanters and pouring the contents into their 100ml sample bottles. Talk about a conflict of interest - what incentive is there for a sommelier to give a generous pour to the paying guests if that sommelier gets to take away what is left in the decanter?

Yeesh.

[Glenn E.]

But, if anyone is interested in paying to attend Don's next Port event, it will be in February when he plans to have 60 people participate in a "Magnum Madness" where he will open and pour 20 magnums with at least 1 from each decade 1970s-1890s.

Hey, at least at that tasting your pours will be closer to 22ml instead of 15!

I was lucky enough to attend the Decades tasting "at cost" right before COVID hit. The pours at that tasting were a little better because they opened at least 3 bottles of each wine, but they were still very small. Because of that experience, I doubt that I would ever pay full price for one of those tastings. They seem to have a target market that is... wealthier.

[Alex Bridgeman]

That is all fascinating to read. Thank you for posting! I don’t know “Don”: I presume he is a notable arranger of wine dinners and the like?

“Don” is Don Schliff, an avid Port collector in the US and someone who is now sharing his Port cellar with fellow Port and wine lovers. I guess organising tastings like this one (he has done 1 or 2 a year for some time now) is a good way to open the bottles in your cellar rather than have your children sell them off when you’re gone.

[Alex Bridgeman]

But, if anyone is interested in paying to attend Don's next Port event, it will be in February when he plans to have 60 people participate in a "Magnum Madness" where he will open and pour 20 magnums with at least 1 from each decade 1970s-1890s.

Hey, at least at that tasting your pours will be closer to 22ml instead of 15!

I’m not so convinced. Another option might be that guests get the same size of pour but the sommeliers get more from the decanters at the end of the tasting.

I was lucky enough to attend the Decades tasting "at cost" right before COVID hit. The pours at that tasting were a little better because they opened at least 3 bottles of each wine, but they were still very small. Because of that experience, I doubt that I would ever pay full price for one of those tastings. They seem to have a target market that is... wealthier.

Judging by the amount of wine remaining in the glasses when people left after the tasting despite the tiny pours, I suspect that many of the people at the event were there simply to be at the event. As you say, I suspect that I won’t be attending future tastings.

[JacobH]

“Don” is Don Schliff, an avid Port collector in the US and someone who is now sharing his Port cellar with fellow Port and wine lovers. I guess organising tastings like this one (he has done 1 or 2 a year for some time now) is a good way to open the bottles in your cellar rather than have your children sell them off when you’re gone.

Thank you. Yes. Agreed. Although I’ve now seen some of the prices But that is nothing compared to the fact that the dress code is specified as “black tie” for something that starts at 12noon

[Edit to remove potentially unfair comment about someone else’s review.]

[Alex Bridgeman]

I’ve not seen any other reviews of the event.

Would you mind posting links, either in the thread or as. PM to me?

[Glenn E.]

Please post links here, as I'd love to read them as well.

[JacobH]

I was thinking about this one (which I described in the plural because I felt my now-deleted comment might have been a bit unfair).

“Epic 2 Day Port event featuring Ports from Quinta do Noval 1931-2002 plus others including an 1887 and lots of Krug Grande Cuvee”

[Alex Bridgeman]

That is a very interesting report - one which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

On the topic of the 1934s, we totally disagree. Inky black and full of fruit is how I would expect the ‘34 Noval to show. You can see from my picture it was a long, long way from that.

But apart from the ‘34s (and mis-identifying the 1887 as Nacional), we seem to be reasonably well aligned at least so far as in our views on the wines.