For The Love Of Port

Quinta do Noval Late Bottled Vintage – 2000
Traditional, Unfiltered. Decanted off a small amount of sediment, but a lot snuck through as it is so super-fine. I have been searching for a proper place to buy muslin from or unbleached cheesecloth. Not having much luck.

A proper cork, removed with an Ah-so opener reveals a fair amount of staining on the cork – about 1 mm of penetration.

Upon decanting
Dark purple colour, darkened in the center when held at an angle to the light. Meniscus is clear but very tiny, fading to dark red as you look towards the center of the glass. Swirling stains the glass a dark red with decent tears that move a bit more rapidly than a VP but less so than most LBVs. I am coming to love Noval’s LBVs for this dark, concentrated colour.

Huge nose of cherries with some form of raspberry and dark plum. Alcohol is muted compared to the 1997 QdN LBV that I had a couple of weeks ago. Some chocolate/cocoa flavour on the entry. Grape on the follow through. Concentrated, yet mellow tannins with just a hint of alcohol on the after taste – very well integrated indeed. This is a fabulous LBV and I am seriously considering picking up a case or two of it, one for long term to see if/how it develops any further, and one for drinking every few weeks.

+9 hours
Nose and colour appear to be the same. The spirit may be a bit less integrated, it seems to stand out a tiny bit more that upon opening (up to +2 hours) but it is still very enjoyable.

+21 hours
The wine appears to have darkened. A boysenberry has appeared, ever so slight, on the finish and the alcohol, if it was standing out last night has re-integrated itself just fine. A smooth drinking, rich LBV – one which I will be going back to purchase a case of this very afternoon.

+37 hours
The alcohol has become dislodged from its cushion in the wine and is acting out, rebelling against keeping in synch with the rest of the product. This is a tad distracting, and not exactly pleasant. The chocolate and boysenberry flavours have disappeared and the grape is a bit more pronounced. The nose has changed ever so slightly – much more spirity and the fruit (dark cherries in particular) seems to have faded a bit. This appears to be in decline.

I will be saving a glass to determine if another 12-18 hours does any change. Right now, I would have to say that the peak drinkability of this LBV is from opening – 4 hours.

Revisted: 2007-05-20

Quinta do Noval Late Bottled Vintage – 2000
Decanted off a tad more sediment than I had last time. Was able to get the majority of it and was pleased to see only a very small amount of ultra-fine remains made it into the decanter. Briefly considered running it through a coffee-filter, but it appears I am out of the unbleached variety, my wife still has not learned after 5½ blissful years of marriage and 7 years of living together that the unbleached ones are what we BUY!!!

I noted that besides what little sediment was decanted away into a glass for use in the spaghetti sauce I plan to make tomorrow (the first time I will attempt to add port + sediment to a sauce) there was not as much crust left in the bottle. I had to throw a tad more wine back into the bottle to get it to dislodge from the glass and drain out for use. I had figured there would be a bit more, being an unfiltered LBV, but was disappointed. (I may instead need to open up the Warre’s 85 that is standing on Death Row currently awaiting the execution of its sentence in order to get enough sediment for my sauce.)

Immediately stuck with the tannic hammer noted last time around, along with cherries. This time around I detect a hint of mint on the mid-palate, but what is most disappointing immediately is that this bottle does not seem to be as sweet as I remember. (I prefer a sweeter style port and this bottle does not do for me what I remember the last one doing.)

+2 hours
Drinking very well, alcohol is very tightly integrated and almost non-existent. If you were drinking this on an empty stomach, you might be surprised when you got up after 2-3 glasses as there is no apparent punch at all up front. Dryer than I remember, there is still not a lot of sweetness, just a subtle hint of residual sugar.

+4 hours
I have to admit, I was hoping to be further along in the bottle than this. I previously noted that I thought the peak drinking window for this LBV is from opening to 4 hours, yet I am hardly a third of the way through this one. Still dominated by dark, black fruits, particularly cherries, this port is still very smooth with a finish that lasts a good amount of time. For an LBV, this is pretty complex. Silky mouthfeel, strong tannins, yet mellow alcohol, this is an LBV that will be interesting to track over a few years time to see what developments will occur in-bottle. Based upon the amount of sediment stuck to the bottle, I would expect less than in a VP where I have seen more sediment in a 375 than what I saw in this 750 mL bottle of LBV.

+6 hours
Maybe it is due to the fact that I am tired, perhaps that I have gotten myself a tad tipsy; it is not even beyond the realm of possibility that I am yearning to taste the sweetness that so made me fall in love with this port last time, but I think I taste a bit more of what I am looking for. The sweetness is still muted, no one is going to mistake this for an Aussie tawny or a true Ruby, but it seems to be getting a bit sweeter as the night wears on.

+14 hours
A quick taste in the morning resulted in similar results to the last time around. The strong fruit flavours seem to be a bit muted at this point, almost a bit dusty. The alcohol shows up a bit more on the finish, but the ending is short and clipped. No longer fabulous at this point.

+18 hours
Another half-ounce for comparison. This is much better than it was a few hours ago. Bittersweet chocolate has shown up, with fresh raspberry and slight influence of blackberry. Alcohol is still very well integrated and the port is still smooth.

+21.5 hours
Just a sip, but enough to determine there has been no change at this point.

+25 hours
A decent pour shows the spirit a tad may be starting to become unhitched from the port. It sits like a bad reminder on the follow through and would result in the loss of at least one point of 100 if were rating this LBV on a 100 pt scale.

+28 hours
A proper glass leaves me with less than 2 oz in the decanter. I see some fine sediment at the bottom of this glass and in the decanter. By this time I have been to the supermarket and purchased my missing unbleached coffee filters, so I do a quick glass-to-glass decant/filter. Alcohol is definitely less integrated at this point, resulting in a tad less satisfaction, but not enough to detract completely.

+30 hours
This bottle is exhausted and I cannot claim that it knocked my socks off as it did the first time. Perhaps this is due to all the LBVs and Rubies I have been trying this month in an attempt to have a variety of 2000 LBVs. I would still say that this was a very solid LBV and was very enjoyable, except for the high expectations that I brought in which ended up not being realized.

Todd