For The Love Of Port

Reading what I can find makes me a little sceptical about some of the claims made for this year - the harvest reports were not particularly glowing, and some of those who sing it's praises can claim very little experience of the vintage.

And while the depression and overstock of the 1927's is regularly cited, would there really have been so little VP made if they had thought it superior to the 1927's?

Was it a superlative vintage, or just a very good one that is very hard to obtain?

None of my reference books go back before the 1970's. I would be interested to know what was written about this year in the forties and fifties, when it could have been unemotionally compared to the 1927's and 1935's

The following excerpt is from a Dutch edition of "The wines of Portugal" by H. Warner Allen, published in 1962 (the translation is mine):

1931 - Only famous because of a single wine, Da Silva's Quinta Noval [sic], a giant of exceptional body and vinousity (I don't think this is a proper word, but neither is it in Dutch), probably partly thanks to the gentlemen's planting of ungrafted vines. Has not reached maturity yet."

Interesting to see the phrase "not yet reached maturity" for a wine that was by then 31 years old.

The ungrafted vines were young at the time of the harvest - I believe the Nacional vineyard was planted in the mid twenties.

Mayson asserts that the Nacional 31 and regular Noval 31 are similar. Whether that has always been the case I don't know.

I have only had three wines from 1931. I have had one example of the 1931 Quinta do Noval Nacional which was a very good bottle, but not the ethereal experience I had expected. I have had the 1931 Noval on at least a handful of occasions, and twice in the past 18 months. It is still the greatest Port I have ever had ... in all but one bottle from the various lots I have tried. I also have had a 1931 from Niepoort and have the empty bottle at home. I believe but am not positive, that it was a Colheita though.

By the way, having walked the Nacional vineyard in 2003 and stood atop of it a couple of nights ago ... it is most impressive. The majority of the 2.5 ha are under a stringent replanting that began two years ago and is still under way.

For the record, although the official transcripts burned along with most of the rest of the Van Zeller family treasure trove of documents in a tragic fire ... I have done exhaustive research on the re-planting of the Nacional vintage. It took place (to the very best of my research efforts) in 1925 and therefore, the greatest Vintage Port ... the exalted 1931 Nacional, came from vines with a mere six years on them. So goes the mighty myth of the need for old vines to make a great wine!