ThePortForum.com

Tasted at this event on 19th July 2011.

What can I tell you? It was late...

"Boiled sweets - hot - dry finish"

I have a sample in the fridge so will report back later with some more profound thoughts and observations on this wine.

The sample:

Orange peel on the nose. Lots of it. Quite thin entry but then gathers weight in the mid palate with lots of citrus fruit and a grapefruit finish. Very pleasant, mature port. This is much better than I remember it on the night of the tasting. Quite delicious.

Picked up a case 23 Nov 1983 at Sotheby's. Last tried 21 Apr 2021 at a birthday luncheon for a friend. In good shape, sweet like cane sugar, no oxidation, but color was fairly dark amber.

Does anyone know why it has a year and a bottling date? Current practice for Crusted is that the big year on the bottle is the bottling year and the contents are usually a mixture of different vintages (sometimes disclosed, sometimes not). Was this effectively a LBV?

(PS. A fascinating Port to try, especially over many decades!)

JacobH wrote: ↑12:03 Wed 05 May 2021 Does anyone know why it has a year and a bottling date? Current practice for Crusted is that the big year on the bottle is the bottling year and the contents are usually a mixture of different vintages (sometimes disclosed, sometimes not). Was this effectively a LBV?

(PS. A fascinating Port to try, especially over many decades!)

It's probably as you say, this was, in all likelihood, an LBV in all but name (and in the fact that it only spent 3 years in wood, as opposed to the mandatory minimum of 4 years for LBVs).

MigSU wrote: ↑13:15 Wed 05 May 2021It's probably as you say, this was, in all likelihood, an LBV in all but name (and in the fact that it only spent 3 years in wood, as opposed to the mandatory minimum of 4 years for LBVs).

Oh, yes, I keep forgetting about the 4-year limit since so little VP is bottled in the third year after harvest these days. I’ve also just noticed that the main label says “Noval” rather than “Quinta do Noval”. I wonder whether that meant the grapes didn’t come from the property? Whilst the label says it was “produced” there, you could interpret that as either grown or vinified!

Yes, well spotted. "Produced" is indeed a bit vague.

It says ‘unblended’ on the label and so clearly not crusted by today’s definition. I don’t when the minimum 4 years came in for LBV but producers appeared to have more license when it came to labelling back then eg Warre LBV 62 is simply labelled as ‘Vintage’ even though it was bottled in 66.

idj123 wrote: ↑10:11 Sun 09 May 2021 It says ‘unblended’ on the label and so clearly not crusted by today’s definition. I don’t when the minimum 4 years came in for LBV but producers appeared to have more license when it came to labelling back then eg Warre LBV 62 is simply labelled as ‘Vintage’ even though it was bottled in 66.

I wonder if you could, under the regulations, make a Crusted Port from a single harvest? I guess the only reason you might want to do it today is if you’ve got a Port which isn’t of VP-quality but don’t want to late-bottle it to turn it into LBV. Or, perhaps if you are single-quinta shipper (like Noval) but want to make VP from bought-in grapes without confusing your brand.

I’m not surprised that that older labels don’t make the LBV/VP distinction clear since “late-bottled” was originally just a description (literally Vintage Port that had been bottled later than usual). I think it was only with Taylor’s “modern” LBV in the 1960s that it became to be something different.