Vintus

Winophilia asks of a number of producers, “What splurge wine (i.e., expensive, rare or just plain outstanding) are you looking forward to opening for the holidays, and what do you plan to serve with it?”  Christian Seely paints a wonderful picture:

Christian Seely, Quinta do Noval and Château Pichon-Baron (Portugal and France). I am not very good at planning the opening of bottles, and very dangerously we have a cellar underneath our house, so as the party develops trips downs the little stone staircase can become frequent, and any thought of deferring pleasure to a later date seems less and less sensible. So I usually don’t know in advance what we will open. But I do have a bottle of the Quinta do Noval Nacional 94 downstairs, and I think we will certainly open that on Christmas Day. I usually just allow vintage port to circulate round the table after lunch to anyone with the strength to carry on, and the only things I eat with it are a few walnuts—and if the children have disappeared into electronic heaven somewhere else I will smoke a cigar. This is Europe so it will be a Havana, probably a Hoyo Epicure No. 2. We have a fireplace in the dining room so I can smoke my cigar and throw walnut shells into the fire as the Nacional goes round the table, safe in the knowledge that it will come back to me: the decanter has a round bottom. Simple pleasures.

You can see the full piece here: http://www.winophilia.com/2011/12/15/special-wines-for-the-holidays/#more-4166

November 1 was the official launch of Jim Meehan’s The PDT Cocktail Book, which features the Noval Cup cocktail he created with Noval BLACK.  Congratulations to Jim, first for finishing the book, and second for the monster reviews he’s getting.  See the reviews below, as well as the Noval Cup cocktail as featured in the book.

This Friday, November 18, Noval BLACK will be poured at over 500 wine stores in 26 states across the U.S.  Consumers will be able to discover this exceptional new port from leading port producer Quinta do Noval, as well as taste it alongside dark chocolate squares from featured chocolate partner La Maison du Chocolat.

The promotion, known as “Early BLACK Friday,” was launched in several cities in November of 2010, a few months after Noval BLACK was introduced. In 2010, in less than a year, Noval BLACK became the fastest growing port in the largest category of port, the “Ruby Reserve” category.  Quinta do Noval went from 0.5% of Ruby Reserve exports to the US with their previous entry in the category, to 8.5% of exports. This year, we have partnered with French chocolatier La Maison du Chocolat to offer consumers an exceptional pairing to enjoy with their glass of port a week before the stresses of actual Black Friday, and to kick-off the winter months and the heaviest season of port enjoyment.

Click on the following link to view a complete list of stores participating in every state: List of Black Friday Stores

Some final thoughts on the New York Wine Experience that Harvey Steiman posted in his blog on the Wine Spectator: “Christian Seely, head of the company that owns Quinta do Noval, offered my favorite wine of the weekend, the incomparable Port Nacional 1994.”

He continues later in his piece:

“Christian Seely heads AXA Millésimes, which owns numerous other European wine estates, including Château Pichon-Longueville-Baron and Château Suduiraut in Bordeaux. He spoke eloquently about Quinta do Noval and the extra focus it places on Nacional, its top-tier wine, but I was lost in the wine itself. Smooth, sweet, an endless pool of flavor and texture that reverberated on the finish for minutes on end; it absolutely floored me.

I often have a bottle of Port ready to serve at dinner parties, but by the end of a bibulous evening hardly anyone wants yet another glass of wine, so it often remains unopened. For something like Nacional 1994, I now believe, who needs dinner? Just open it for friends and munch on some Marcona almonds and fine chocolate. Then take a nap and wake up for dinner.”

The photo below shows the discrete tag indicating that you are standing before vines in the Nacional area of the Quinta do Noval vineyard.

Today, Wine Spectator posted a featured article on Quinta do Noval’s leading force Christian Seely and their “perfect Vintage Port”.  Celebrating Wine Spectator’s 30th anniversary at the 2011 New York Wine Experience, the Quinta do Noval Vintage Port Nacional 1994 was shared with the audience, giving them what may have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Here is some of what was said about Noval’s perfect Vintage Port:

“In 1994, only about 190 cases of Nacional were made. “Today is certainly the biggest tasting there has ever been of Nacional ’94—and certainly the biggest tasting there ever will be,” said Seely. “So I hope you like it.”

Quinta do Noval is the only one of the major traditional Port houses whose principal Vintage Port always comes from one vineyard, Seely explained. And the Nacional comes from ungrafted vines in a 5-acre parcel in the heart of that vineyard. Even though almost all the vines in the Douro Valley were grafted onto American rootstocks after phylloxera devastated European vineyards in the late 1800s, this parcel survived without resorting to that measure.

The Nacional plot is profoundly different from the rest of the estate; some years they can make both Nacional and Quinta do Noval Vintage Ports and some years they can only make one or the other. “Nacional is great when it wants to be,” Seely said. For example, in 1996, they didn’t declare a vintage year for Noval, but the Nacional lot clearly stood out as great. In contrast, 2007 was one of the great Quinta do Noval Ports, but Nacional “just didn’t sing.”

Why is it different? The wines are made by the same people, and the winemaking is very simple. The grapes are trod by foot in traditionallagares and left to ferment in these open stone vats. But while Quinta do Noval is characterized by elegance and finesse, the Nacional has “another dimension—extraordinary power and structure. It can be almost brutal when it’s young.” Extremely reserved for many years after bottling, the 1994 now gives the impression of great youthfulness.”

See the full featured article by clicking the link below:

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/45865