NV Quinta do Noval Porto 10 Year Old Tawny

Community Tasting Note

4 comments have been posted

• Comment posted by Chris@77:

  12/8/2014 2:37:00 PM - Seriously trying to understand what you wrote because of considering this in lieu of decades of vintage ports ... tawny ports are from multiple years (?), not a single year. What is the meaning of the 2014 reference? Also, tawnys don't "age". They don't improve in the bottle (like malt whisky) ... not suitable for further aging (none of them are suitable). Also, don't know how to interpret "medium sweet", relative to what? Other tawnys? Oloroso? PX? ... by whom. It would be helpful if you pegged it to other wines. Example: On the vintage side Graham makes the sweetest port, Dow the driest, Taylor most tannic/massive, Fonseca ... Or compare to a liquor like B&B. Thanks. Just trying to learn something that will help in decisions between wines.

• Comment posted by HStaal:

  12/8/2014 4:00:00 PM - Hi Chris,
  
  Thanks for your comments, let me try and answer them or at least give you some form of reference point to help and position my comments.
  
  "What is the meaning of the 2014 reference?" When I came to enter my tasting note for the 10 year old tawny CT presented with numerous options of already created entries. Going with the NV route would be the obvious route as most people seem to have done. For me this doesn't convey though when the wine was a 10 year old tawny i.e. You would need to look at purchase date to get a feel for bottling date or make an implicit assumption that everyone on CT drink their tawny port pretty much on purchase. So as 2014 already existed I chose to use this indicate at least the year it was purchased. When I came to enter my tasting note for the 20 year old tawny only the NV already existed so in this case I did not want to create a new "vintage"
  
  "Also, tawnys don't "age". They don't improve in the bottle (like malt whisky) ... not suitable for further aging (none of them are suitable)"
  Yes so this reflects that the wine will not improve in the bottle since it is already fully developed. I am not sure what you are commenting on here - is it the why am I stating the obvious - tawnys don't "age" etc. In that case let me draw your attention to the Tasting Story that all these tasting notes are under - namely as part of of my WSET 4 training. So as WSET requires a statement on Potential to age it is included even though obvious to many on CT.
  
  "Also, don't know how to interpret "medium sweet", relative to what? Other tawnys? Oloroso? PX? ... by whom."
  The scale I am using is the WSET one (as explained above) so basically gives me Medium-Sweet, Sweet and Luscious at this end of the scale. In terms of the relative on the day context one of the other ports was a Graham's 1980 vintage port - this was clearly sweet. Both the 10 yo and 20 yo Noval tawny were markedly less sweet, so the call then became are they still the same level of sweetness. Consensus on the day was to call this medium sweet.
  
  Hope this helps.

• Comment posted by Chris@77:

  12/8/2014 5:06:00 PM - Hi HSTAAL,
  
  Thanks. I should have intuited that WSET was a formal wine program with set regimen. I did not. Apologies. This explains a few things. I still don't fully grasp the date issue but no matter ... 20 years means min 20 in the bottle among blended wines, no further development. The trick to me (and you may be alluding to this) is what is the blend at the time. Frankly, this is difficult to discern, even with a reference to year. The reason is you don't know how long the wine was stored on the shelf or sitting at some wholesaler (speaking from U.S.). I'm frustrated with this with champagnes which is why I cited it (don't buy vintage champagnes because they are best cellared for optimal enjoyment, alternative is luxury cuvees that I choose not to pay up for). Your explanation on the sweetness helps. I don't favor sweet wines but appreciate complex ones. Graham was never my favorite despite owning a couple cases of 77's, some 80's, 85's. The calculus was complexity and cost. For tawnies I'm thinking Taylor, Fonseca, Quinta do Noval (disclosure: never collected Quinta vintage ... only Taylor, Graham, Fonseca and a few Dow ... drank the Sandemans early). It reads as if Taylor isn't the wine as Quinta but is less sweet. Have to think on this. Read more. Thank you.

• Comment posted by WSG:

  12/23/2014 5:34:00 AM - I think the reason why the NV 10 year old Tawny is entered as 2014 is to differentiate between bottling years. The bottle I have before me states "Bottled in 2014" on the back label. Similarly Gonzalez Byass Tio Pepe now has the bottling date imprinted on the back label.