For The Love Of Port

Quinta do Noval Colheita 1986 Bottled 2006; 20,5% abv; 37,90€



Pinkish-orange colour. The nose is floral, pleasantly (not overly) woody, with some citrus/orange and strawberry notes also. The palate is very sweet but with good acidity. The 20,5% alcohol is a little noticable (was not decanted), but is not disturbing. Refreshing and un-cloying aftertaste. Nice!

Otto, good tn. I really enjoy Noval's Colheita's, including this one.

what is the other wine in the pic?

Hello Andy, the other wine is Drouet Fils Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine La Sancive Sur Lie 2006. A servicable but unexciting Muscadet (Muscadet is one of my great loves).

Have you tasted older Noval Colheitas? How are they? Unfortunately the '86 is the only one available to me.

The older colheita of Noval are much more exciting than the 86 that I find is lacking acidity at this moment.

There is a great trio in the 70's that is widely available and relatively cheap in Portugal depending on the wine shops : 71,74,76.

Fred is right, the 70's from Noval are great...and so are the 60's.

The '74 is quite a nice example of Colheita, and still reasonably priced. The '37 is another although you will pay a bit more. For "everyday" Colheita (did I really say that?), the '74 is hard to beat.

Jay

I understand the 71 is a great one too.

The only Quinta do Noval colheita that I've had is the 1971. It's the oldest and best colheita that I've had, so far.

It appears that everyone produced a colheita in 1986. I've recently had Niepoort, Dow, Kopke, and Delaforce. I plan to get a Smith Woodhouse this week.

1986 was a pretty good year for Cohleita's, I've had a number of them the past couple of years and can't recall having a bad one so far.