After almost 2 hours of decanting the 1962 Noval Crusted Port had a strange vegetal nose of asparagus, tomatoes, and a bit of raisin.
Although the color of purple, cherry, and burgundy was excellent the vegetal nose did not dissipate, even after several hours. There was an underlying taste of canned stewed tomatoes mixed with grapefruit which hurt our scoring of this Port. It had a decent finish though lasting about 12 seconds. After 24 hours of decanting the Noval was thin and weak with somewhat sharp tasting spirits, overall disappointing but drinkable.
I have only had this twice (both in 2005 and 2006) and the first time it was good but not great and the 2nd time it was a much better experience. A bit tired, but still quite enjoyable today. Thanks for the photos. It is certainly not a bottle that is easy to find in the USA and I would be yours came from an old UK cellar at some point.
I did not like this port much at all. When the cork first opened, I thought it was decent, but it went downhill mighty quick. I was being generous at 84 points. The tart grapefruit taste was quite pronounced and hard for me to move beyond that. I was really hoping to like this port, but there's no way I could give it the thumbs up.
It was perhaps the biggest disappointing port I have had all year. I was so excited to try this bottle, just look at the picture!
I've had this just once in 2006. It was pushing the old side, but still very nice for an old "poor mans Port." Quite different than your experience with it, so I would guess it was an off bottle. As a side, as of last year, Noval only has one bottle of this left in their cellars.
Andy V. wrote:I've had this just once in 2006. It was pushing the old side, but still very nice for an old "poor mans Port." Quite different than your experience with it, so I would guess it was an off bottle. As a side, as of last year, Noval only has one bottle of this left in their cellars.
Damn only one bottle left at Noval! I would like to "re visit" this one but it may not be happening anytime soon. It may have been off ..definitely no TCA though (young or old)...just stewed tomatoes!
