It has been the requirement of the person hosting Monday Table to finish with a Nacional for the past couple of years. Earlier in the year we half-jokingly discussed how great it would be to do a complete dinner serving Nacional all the way through. Big D stepped up to the plate and took on the challenge and last night we descended upon restaurant Ezard in Melbourne to drink a little more Vintage Port in one session than would be recommended by the surgeon general.
The food was a little slow to get going but was well chosen and worked beautifully with the Ports. The wines were brilliant. I can’t remember being at an event where there was such transparency and purity in every bracket. We were almost all unanimous in our ranking of the wines in each bracket and our strike rate at picking the vintages (served single blind) was extremely high.
We kicked off with an amuse of an oyster shooter with cucumber, apple and yuzu. It was never going to be a match for any fortified so Big D served a couple of nice Champagnes. The 2006 Drappier Grande Sandree Rosé was quite floral and had some juniper and sage herbal notes. It was rich and yeasty with good minerally detail and a very dry finish. A Krug Rosé begun smelling of spent fireworks, with its big sulphurous nose. It was quite meaty and had plenty of toast and grilled nut action. It breathed up really well and finished with a big lick of citrus.
Onto the event proper and a bracket of younger wines. The capillaries in my nose were starting to rise to the surface just in the anticipation of having to consume so much Port in a sitting. The 1997 Quinta do Noval Nacional was a black hole that swallowed light. Mark shone his iphone torch into the glass and the light was gobbled up and taken to another dimension. It had an interesting aroma with something that resembles crushed ants, kind of like the formic acid smell you sometimes see in Grange. It was very ripe with raspberry and Satsuma plum fruit and a strand of licorice weaving through the flavor profile. The 2003 Quinta do Noval Nacional is a wine marked by the hot vintage. It is very rich, ripe sweet and dense. There are some floral notes and a little volatility. It finishes with a light roasted note and was unanimously the least favoured wine of the bracket and probably the night. The 1996 Quinta do Noval Nacional was surprisingly good from an unheralded year. It was the most ready wine showing an ethereal floral perfume with whiffs of curry leaf and brown spices. Its fruit profile was fresh and juicy and it was nicely proportioned and balanced. There is very little chance of any of us being alive when the 2011 Quinta do Noval Nacional finally gets into stride but man is it one brilliant Port. It is a deep, vibrant purple colour. There’s almost a Northern Rhone passionfruit skins aroma at first and the fruit is so dense, bright and deep. It has gorgeous floral spirit and outrageously good definition and length is phenomenal. An accompanying dish of spiced quail, wilted greens, beetroot, cocoa, crisp onion rings and smoked beetroot sauce worked really well.
The excellent food pairings continued with twice cooked pork belly, pedro ximenez glaze, black pudding, apple and celeriac, five spiced salt and pepper. The 1985 Quinta do Noval Nacional was just lightly stripped by some tca but you could sense its innate quality. There were notes of raisins, curry leaf and biscuit and it had good depth and richness. The 1994 Quinta do Noval Nacional stood out like dog’s balls. We have seen this wine a few times over the years and it is always as black as the ace of spades. It is dense and deep, dripping with blood plums and laced with anise. It drinks like a delicious red wine and has all sorts of floral nuance. It needs several decades in the cellar still. The 1991 Quinta do Noval Nacional is complete and in a really nice place. It is fine and elegant, lightly floral and shows plenty of licorice flavor. It fills the mouth but is by no means heavy and leaves a delicious perfume once swallowed. The 1987 Quinta do Noval Nacional showed just a little spirit burn. It had some chocolate and wafer biscuit on the nose. In the mouth it was full of raisin fruit and was trimmed with a little flora.
The next bracket had a couple of beauties in it but was unfortunately marred by a badly corked 1983 Quinta do Noval Nacional. The 1970 Quinta do Noval Nacional was tight to begin with but unfurled in the glass. It had some curry leaf spice and dried flower aromas. It was soft and round with jube like fruit. Someone at the table mentioned it had some flavours that you sometimes see in Rayas. Well I guess Rayas can sometimes look a bit Porty why can’t Port look ‘Rayasy’? Most at the table thought the 1978 Quinta do Noval Nacional was the 70, it showed really well. It had really good depth and a delightful aroma laden with 5 spice powder. It had a fine, floral spirit and loads of licorice in the mouth. It was rich and luscious with good cut to the finish. The 1975 Quinta do Noval Nacional was relatively simple yet simply delicious. It was full of raisins and chocolate and had a light vein of spice. Black Angas beef, crispy potato, king brown mushrooms, roasted cauliflower puree, smoked marrow and native pepperberry was a splendid dish with the wines.
At this stage of the evening Anthony put me through the ‘Kristopher Kristofferson test’. If you can say his name without slurring you are deemed sober. I passed and was allowed to continue drinking. Lucky too, as one of the greatest wines ever made was coming up in this bracket. The 1964 Quinta do Noval Nacional was soft and gentle with some brown sugar development. It was gently spicy with clean, floral spirit and a raisin fruit profile. The 1963 Quinta do Noval Nacional should be on every wine lover’s bucket list, it is legendary. It pours out looking like a 10 year old wine. It is so ethereal and so complex with notes of blood plum, Asian spice, preserved cherry and licorice. It is dense, full and sweet with awesome power but is by no means heavy as it glides across the palate. It has a sensual, silky texture and really fans out on the finish possessing extraordinary length of flavour. If the 63 had not been at the table the 1960 Quinta do Noval Nacional would have probably been wine of the night, it was in scintillating form. It had an engaging scent of rose petals and was almost Burgundian in its perfume. It was complex and rich with some bitter chocolate and brown spice notes. It was rich and textured in the mouth with weightless power and awesome length. A simple cheese platter was all that was required to play with these three beautiful wines.
Just when we thought proceedings had closed Big D put one last glass of Port in front of us and said is this a Nacional? As you have to finish with a Nacional at Monday Table we collectively responded with ‘we bloody well hope so’. What a good bloke he is, finishing a Nacional dinner with a mystery Nacional and we enjoyed thoroughly the 1958 Quinta do Noval Nacional. It had a little adlehydic whiff to begin with but got better in the glass. It was spicy and loaded with flora and had some raisins and chocolate in the mouth. It was fine and lacy and finished quite clean with gentle spirit.
Cheers
Jeremy
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You mean more Port like? I would be upset if it was wine-like LOL.![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}
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