1985 | Quinta do Noval | Vintage Port

Deeper ruby than the regular 1985 with pale brick rim. Intense nose with some dried fruits and cut peel. Lively. Racy and vigorous. I'd be happy to drink or cellar this.

Reviews:

• Wine Spectator: After a few rather weak years, this puts Nacional back on top. Very deep ruby-black, with ripe raisiny aromas, an abundance of fruit and tannins and an extremely thick and viscous finish.

• John Gilman: The decade of the 1980s was not considered one of the finest in the history of Quinta do Noval, as disagreements amongst different family members about the eventual direction of the estate led to some of the less distinguished wines in the illustrious history of the domaine. However, despite that, the ’85 Nacional is really quite a lovely drink- perhaps not quite as profound as it should have been in the context of how these ungrafted vines usually perform in top vintages, but nonetheless, a very satisfying bottle of Port. The deep and complex nose is ever so slightly raisiny in its fruit profile, offering up notes of dried black cherries, pepper, fennel, tobacco, a touch of new leather, a lovely base of soil and just a faint whiff of caramel in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and shows a superb backend, with moderate tannins, fine focus and lovely length and grip on the finish. The mid-palate depth here is good, but not great, and the customary sappy core of beautifully pure black cherry fruit that is the calling card of Nacional is not particularly prevalent in the 1985.

Producer Information

Quinta do Noval, established in 1715, is one of the only Port houses to be located in the heart of the Douro Valley of Portugal. It is perhaps best known for its Nacional Vintage Ports, the 1963 is considered by many critics to be the greatest Port ever made.Quinta do Noval is also one of the only houses that is named after its most famed vineyard, in this case the Quinta do Noval. The majority of the vineyards at the quinta are planted with the noble varieties of the Douro: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Cao. These grapes do well on the mix of schist and clay soil types found here.There was a large scale replanting of the vineyards in 1994, and each plot was planted with a variety that best suited that soil, altitude and exposition. Historically, the vineyards had been planted in blended plots; however this practice is dying out in the Douro, as the plantings become more specific to individual terroir. In the heart of the Quinta do Noval vineyard is a small plot of ungrafted vines that were lucky enough to avoid the devastation of phylloxera in the 19th Century. These grapes are used in the Nacional wines.

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