Wine Advisor
Quinta do Noval, Nacional Vintage Port 2011
View analysis
Description
Quinta do Noval, Vintage Port, Porto, Nacional, Douro, Red, 2001
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The Quinta do Noval Nacional 2011 is one of the most breathtaking, nascent Vintage Ports that I have ever met. The label should state a health warning: – “Sensory Overload” – since the bouquet is endowed with copious dark berry fruit, minerals, bay leaf and cloves that manifests like a slow-motion explosion from the glass. The palate is velvety-smooth on the entry, but do not let that kid you. Wave after wave of intense ripe black fruit lap along your sensory shoreline – indescribably harmonious with extremely well-judged acidity. There is a crescendo of flavors that build towards a sensual, date and raisin-tinged, magisterial finish that I can only analogize to the dramatic E-major chord that concludes The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life.” In fact, Lennon & McCartney’s magnum opus probably sums up the 2011 Nacional better than any descriptor I can think of. Tasted May 2013. Importer: Vintus Wines, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2011 Quinta do Noval Nacional has an entrancing bouquet that unfolds with time. It is extraordinarily concentrated with black currant pastilles, baked earth, a touch of terracotta and bay leaf that gains more dimension with time. Yet there is undeniable purity and elegance here, a seductive chorus of aromas perfectly in tune. The palate has a wondrous symmetry and focus, perfect acidity and immense purity. Everything here is so precise and at the same time, unassuming, as if this Nacional is aware of its breeding without the impulse to brag about it. It has closed down just a little since last year, but I take this as a positive sign that this legendary Nacional will delight for decades rather than years. This is the kind of elixir that leaves you speechless – surely the finest Nacional since the ethereal 1963. Drink 2020-2060. Tasted January 2014.
Reviewed by: Mark Squires
The 2011 Vintage Port "Nacional" is a field blend aged for 18 months in wood before release. It comes in with 94.6 grams per liter of residual sugar and, if anything, tastes drier. This is a monumental Nacional that justifies its cult reputation. Still showing rather primary, young fruit, it is laced with herbs and a hint of resin. It is just plain delicious, even while showing some austerity. Fresh, clean and lively, its tension on the finish serves it in good stead, enlivening the wine along the way. The balance is perfect. Elegant but still very concentrated, more than the 2004 also reviewed, it expands in the glass as it airs out, coats the palate nicely and then becomes ever more intense. If the first tastes were all about the fruit, this wound up being about its backbone and firmness, what I typically expect. The tannins are not searing, in a sense--they are hard, not harsh--but make no mistake: it shuts down with a bang and does a fine job of seizing the tongue. It's built for the long haul, of course. Some five days later, it had not changed a lot, but the fruit was fighting back a little harder. After another five days, the fruit became pretty darned delicious. It will eventually win, but you need patience for this Port to come into balance--and show complexity, equally important. Even after ten days open, it still tightened on the finish and showed pure power. It's a beauty.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright medium ruby. Knockout aromas of black fruits, pungent minerality, licorice, violet, black pepper and sexy nutty oak quickly shut down in the glass. Wonderfully sweet, layered and perfumed, with an alluring element of exotic flowers but also a spine of steel underneath. The authoritative, palate-staining finish displays outstanding energy, with the tannins really clamping down on the wine's intense fruit today. This great wine will need at least 15 years of cellaring before it approaches peak drinkability and should go on for at least a few decades beyond that.
About the Producer
Quinta do Noval is one of the oldest and leading wineries producing Port wine. Among the top port producers, Bird Park is even more distinguished by the fact that its grapes are picked from a single vineyard. Notably, the winery is known for producing Portugal’s best port wine, “Nacional”, a blend from a single vineyard of old vines in the domestic Touriga Nacional. Likewise, the winery also produces high-quality dry red wines from Portugal, the most anticipated wines from the Douro region, showing unparalleled depth and concentration, as well as rich fruit and spice. trait. "Douro" means gold and gold in Portuguese, so the Douro River is also called the Golden River Valley. The Bird Park is located in Pinhao Village, the most central part of the Douro River region. The winery now has about 247 acres of vineyards. The Bird Park was created in 1715, originally owned and operated by the Rebello Valente family for over a century, and passed on to Viscount Vilar D'Allen by marriage in the early 19th century , a man with a passion for wild dances. In the 1880s, due to phylloxera damage, like other local wineries, Bird Garden was also for sale. In 1894, it was sold to Antonio Jose da Silva, a famous local businessman, who replanted the grape The estate was reborn, and his son-in-law, Luiz Vasconcelos Porto, took over the management and has been managing the winery for nearly 30 years. Louis vigorously carried out reforms, widening the width of the terraces, increasing the light and the convenience of field operations, which is a great reform even by today's technical standards, and promoted the winery with the help of Cambridge, Oxford and other clubs to enhance the reputation of the winery. Bird Garden's reputation continued to improve, and the 1931 vintage was an iconic one. Due to the world economic downturn at the time, orders for Port wine fell sharply. During the year, only three wine merchants continued to operate. Bird Garden was the The only Portuguese producer at the time with continuous exports to the Anglo-American market.
