1997 Quinta do Noval Porto Late Bottled Vintage Unfiltered

Community Tasting Notes (15) Avg Score: 92.5 points

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  10/31/2022 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 95 Points

  Cork a little dry and crumbly - came out in about 5 pieces.
  Not so much sediment in the bottle as a bag of compost.
  Maturing colour that's lost all the purple of youth. Very dark and opaque.
  Rich, chocolatey nose with deep dark black fruit, rum and a dash of furniture polish.
  Luscious palate. Very big and powerful, and feeling remarkably youthful. Chocolatey plum and blackberry, but rather evident alcohol lends a touch of burn. Very deep and complex, with really interesting depths and layers, alternating between sweet, sour and fresh red fruit.

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  12/28/2015 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 94 Points

  A hefty two inches of sediment has now built up in these bottles. On the one hand, this means that at last the Quinta do Noval decanter that I got at their shop in Vila Nova de Gaia is big enough to hold the drinkable contents of the bottle - why do they sell such small decanters? On the other hand, as careful as I could possibly, there were still some flakes of sediment made it into the decanter.
  
  A good, even maturing colour - it's lost its youth, but isn't really looking particularly mature yet.
  Gorgeous nose. Deep black fruits, lots of leather, demarara rum, some furniture polish and a hint of pencil rubber. Powerful and deep.
  Powerful palate. Feels much younger than you'd expect. Lots and lots of black plum and blackberry fruit and rich chocolate flavours. An interesting sour note. Very deep and complex. Improving, opening up and developing additional complexity in the time it's taken to type this tasting note. Terrific stuff.

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  12/6/2012 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 94 Points

  Deep, dark plumskin colour, not yet really showin many signs of maturity. Huge amounts of plummy black fruit on the nose, heavily layered with chocolate, dark rum and rum-soaked raisins. The more I sniff it, the more it smells like rum and raisin ice cream, without the cream.
  Gorgeous palate. Rich, yet fairly fresh black and red fruit. A very velvety, cossetting texture. Very elegant. Very classy.
  No sign of even reaching a plateau. Must have another 5-10 years in it, surely.

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  12/18/2011 - andrewstevenson.com wrote: 93 Points

  Massive deposit in the bottle, thankfully not too loose, so decanted easily and this glass is pretty clean. A really, really deep, impenetrable dark purple colour, still with hints of youth. Deep, brooding nose: at this stage, straight from the freshly opened bottle, it's actually feeling a bit tight and closed. Dark black plums, some bitter chocolate and a hint of licorice. The nose at this stage is definitely more reminiscent of a British winter hedgerow than a Douro patamar! With time some more floral notes come along and distinct aromas of chocolate violet and rose creams.
  Lovely palate. Quite fresh on the attack with rich floral notes. Then there are much deeper, richer, chocolatey, velvety blackberry fruits. Really poised. This is very far from a mature port, but it's certainly in a good place just now.

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  7/17/2010 - PvT wrote: 91 Points

  Immediate mersihino cherry on the nose, very chocolately, OH Henry!!! Keeping my other last bottle for a few more years...

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