Community Tasting Note
-
portman63 Likes this wine: 94 points
November 30, 2017 - The fill was into the shoulder and the cork broke up, but after decanting, this showed quite well with good body, prunes and plum fruit and quite showy on the nose to my surprise. I wouldn't say it matched the best producers from this vintage, but fun since I'll likely never try the Nacional. It is absolutely near the top tier though. We had with my friend's homemade chocolates, but the magic was pairing it with a Neal's Yard Stilton I luckily saw as a rare find. They were absolutely perfect together and probably influenced my score - a bit.
2 people found this helpful 3,932 views
4 Comments
-
Tim Heaton commented:
11/30/17, 10:53 PM - wow, brilliant!
-
logos commented:
3/23/18, 2:17 PM - " wouldn't say it matched the best producers from this vintage ...absolutely among the top tier though": these 2 contentions are in apparent conflict. could you explain further, please?
-
portman63 commented:
3/24/18, 8:37 AM - I changed one word to hopefully clarify it for the pedantic wine lovers of the world. :-) Specifically, I think of Taylor, Fonseca, and Noval Nacional as the sorta first growths above Dow, Graham, and Warre as second growths - but still top tier IMO. I was pleasantly surprised that this showed easily in that second group since I had seen some professional criticism indicating it was a big disappointment compared to the Nacional. Noval since the 90's is certainly near the top of that second group and maybe into the first in certain vintages, but time will tell.
-
logos commented:
3/24/18, 2:50 PM - thanks for your interesting response. I think of Taylor and Noval as the sorta first growths, with Noval Nacional a cut above, like Yquem among sauternes; Fonseca and Graham as the sorta second growths; Dow and Warre as the sorta third growths. Because it's lighter and more subtle, less dramatically in your face, Noval has often been criticized unfairly; but to me the difference between Taylor and Noval is rather like that between Latour and Lafite, the latter being more refined, elegant,
and complex.