2003 Quinta do Noval Silval Vintage Port

[Todd Pettinger]

Quinta do Noval Silval Vintage Port – 2003

Decanted a surprising amount of sediment out of a very dark bottle with driven cork that came out in one piece with the Ah-so. Upon decanting, the nose was full of dark berries, grapes and some licorice. Heavy tannins with plums added to the palate. Dark red deepening to purple, yet not as stain-the-glass black as it’s bigger brother the Noval 2003 VP.

+2 hours
Some chocolate is showing up on the palate, along with harsh, young, green, mouth-puckering tannins.

+4 hours
More defined chocolate on the palate. The tannins are painfully prevalent at this point (young, very green, strong and in-your-face.) Combined with biting acidity, this results in a Port that is tough to enjoy at this stage, yet as predicted. I was predicting a rather long period of time in the decanter prior to being very drinkable.





+12 hrs
This was likely the worst showing time for this Port – it had a lot of powerful, astringent tannins. Chocolate is disappearing from the palate and being replaced with a harsh alcohol. The finish is short, clipped and extremely dry.

+1 day
Harsh Harsh Harsh tannins are now fully showing through. The fruit is disappearing into oblivion. There is little sweetness as was there to some extent in the first few hours of sampling.

+2 days
Some light chocolate notes are back in, and some cherries have shown up. A bit of dustiness on the mid-palate and some alcohol showing through detract from the overall enjoyment of the Port. I was having a lot of trouble getting much enjoyment out of the Port at this point and if I was rating it at this stage, it would be mid-80s (85-86.)

+3 days
Some fruit is back and the dustiness is gone. Plums and a bit of chocolate are present. Some light cherries are touch and go on the back palate. While there is still some alcohol, the dry finish is what surprised me the most. Fans of Dow will likely enjoy this Port once they get past the exceedingly hard tannins.

My rating for this 2nd label VP will be 86. It is not to my liking and while I may purchase one or two more bottles for longer-term storage to see what it does in a decade or two, it would only be if the price was reduced a bit.

This tasting note is one of several related tasting notes. Click [here] to see the original note in context.