1996 Quinta do Noval Vintage Port Nacional

[Jay Hack]

• 1996 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage Nacional - Portugal, Douro, Porto (3/12/2013)
  Decanted at 9:30 pm the night before into a large open mouthed glass pitcher. Poured back into the bottle at 7 am the next morning. Carefully handled to removed all sediment in the double decant. Opened at the restaurant at 7 pm and drunk at about 9:30. Roy Hersh gets credit for decanting instructions, which were spot on.
  
  WOW. Absolutely wonderful and a candidate for wine of the decade. Still very primary in flavors but incredibly smooth and sexy with zero rough edges. The flavors are red fruit, cherry and plum, with a tiny bit of undifferentiated spice, hard to pinpoint. Occasional tiny bits of chocolate. No secondary caramel or nuttiness. Lacking complexity only because it is still a baby, but that's what to expect. My other bottle will have to wait 10-20 years as the flavor profile morphs. Not too sweet, not syrupy in the mouth. Just a smooth, seamless taste experience.
  
  I bought this bottle from "the Cellar" auction of Rosania bottles a few years ago. I bid because I have an original RMP book in which he said he had never seen, let alone tasted, a bottle. I got the impression he thought Nacional might be a myth so I had wanted to own one for 20+ years. This is the first bottle I have ever tasted and it was worth the price of admission. (97 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Roy Hersh]

A great bottle for sure, perfectly decanted and it rocked. I gave it 96+ points, but why quibble. I think the 1996 is the equivalent of the "modern day 1967" Nacional. Excellent!

Thanks for sharing Jay, I really appreciated this, even if the others were not as excited as us.

[David Spriggs]

Jay, I agree with your TN. I love this wine! For current consumption, I think it makes more sense opening this instead of one of the bigger boys (1994, 1997). So delicious! A huge success for the vintage.