1931 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage Nacional

Community Tasting Notes (4) Median Score: 100 points

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  10/30/2022 - jlgnml Likes this wine: 100 Points

  Dark color, incredibly youthful, outstanding on all accounts, a treasure to drink, the wine was from the 7th year. Could last another 100 years.

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  5/6/2013 - theportguy wrote: 100 Points

  An Affair to Remember: 1851-1994 (Sammamish, Washington): My oh my. This is a legendary bottle that I never thought I would get to try in my lifetime. We have a regular segment in our For The Love Of Port newsletter where interview personalities from the Port trade. One the standard questions we usually ask in our interviews is “What is the one Vintage Port you wish you could try, but never have.” I would (unscientifically) venture to say that 80% say “The 1931 Noval Nacional.” My friend Roy Hersh helped to secure this bottle for an epic “bucket list” tasting, and the buyer paid $10,000 for the bottle. Despite seemingly good provenance, when we used Port tongs to open it, the kitchen immediately started to smell like wet cardboard. It was a corked bottle, and undrinkable. We were obviously extremely disappointed, but the buyer didn’t seem to be too worked up about it. Unbeknownst to use, he had discovered another bottle of the 1931 Noval Nacional and had flown to the Bahamas to pick it up from the famous Graycliff Restaurant. The bottle was pulled from a bag, places on the counter, and our roller-coaster of emotions went from sadness to jubilation! The wine was light amber in color as it was decanted, and we breathed a sigh of relief when we smelled some wonderful aromatics wafting up from the decanter. After carefully pouring everyone a glass, we sat down to taste and write our notes. There was a little spirit on the nose, with a touch of red fruits and even some light floral notes. On taking the first sip, there was an intense flavor of bight cherry and red fruit, with some crazy complexity of swirling espresso bean, dark fruit, brown sugar, and some black cherry. The immense, evolving mid-palate was smooth and balanced. The finish was incredibly long, with the flavors, acidity and residual tannins dancing playfully seemingly minutes after I’d swallowed. This was likely a one-in-a-lifetime bottle for me, and while it might be tempting to rate this wine higher because of the experience, the wine in the glass before me earned this perfect score all on its own.

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  5/6/2013 - theportguy wrote: flawed

  After the owners of this bottle scoured the world looking for this rare gem - and buying is from a collector for $10,000 - we were extremely disappointed when he opened the bottle and we discovered that the wine was severely corked.

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  3/15/2007 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 94 Points

  The Fine Wine Experience Quinta do Noval & Nacional Tasting (with Christian Seely) (Institute of Directors, London): English-bottled by Justerini & Brooks. A bit muffled on the nose, touch of toffee, hint of maderisation. Extremely powerful, comparable build to the straight Noval 1931, perhaps even broader shoulders. Certainly its equal in length, in fact even longer still - seemingly endless. Even more complex and finely tuned too. Perfumed, touches of hint and eucalyptus. Fascinating and very impressive. From a perfect bottle this must be otherworldly. Who knows, maybe one day....

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