1985 Noval LBV

[Bert VD]

Magnum bottled in 1990.
i didn't expect much from this, buying it was a bit of a gamble. i paid 50€ which for me translates to 2 bottles of 25€. sounded reasonable.

so yesterday i opened it and filtered it. (the cork looked fine but completely fell apart when opening the bottle) after about 3 hours in the decanter i poured it back into the bottle. the color was reddish orange and quite transparent.
the smell was pleasant. a bit like cherry jam. the taste was one dimensional, not very interesting and the alcohol overpowering.

i decided to leave it until today for any further tasting. it has opened up now. still heavy on the alcohol but now i get a much richer taste and a really long aftertaste that was non-existant yesterday. the color is really a tawny now and the taste as well. a style of port i never drink and don't really like that much so maybe i'm not the right person to write this now

there is some acidity and nuttiness but what i think lasts the longest is a kind of citrus bitter and a sticky sweetness. it also sticks to the glass for a very long time.
i think if you like tawnies this is really not bad. for me it's drinkable but it's a magnum. way too much.

so i will probably put some in the freezer to use later on for cooking. if anyone has tips on what to do with it feel free to let me know

[Bert VD]

tried it again today. it's actually a lot better now. alcohol is still quite strong but the taste is so much richer now. hard to explain but this is not bad

[John Danza]

Thanks for the note. I've been doing a lot of experimenting with aged LBV's and have generally had great success with their age-ability. I'm surprised a magnum format didn't have better results, but 1985 has turned out to be a more variable vintage than originally thought.

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[Bradley Bogdan]

I'm surprised you found a magnum, I've never seen an LBV in larger format! Thanks for the thoughts on it, too bad it didn't show a bit better. Noval from the 80's is dodgy in general though.


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[Andy Velebil]

As other said, consider yourself lucky it still showed fairly well. The 80's were a very rough patch for Noval.

[Bert VD]

well my brother and my uncle had some glasses yesterday evening and enjoyed it.
it didn't really improve anymore between day 4 and day 5.

and as it became more of a tawny i prefer it blended with Noval Black to give it some more freshness.
this probably is 'not done' but i like some experiments. 2 parts 85 and one part Black worked well for me

Bradley Bogdan, i found it on a website for second hand stuff. some guy found it in his grandfathers basement and could only tell me that it was brought home from portugal, put in the basement and never moved anymore until now. so steady temperature, laying down in it's wooden box.

[Andy Velebil]

and as it became more of a tawny i prefer it blended with Noval Black to give it some more freshness.
this probably is 'not done' but i like some experiments. 2 parts 85 and one part Black worked well for me

Not a bad way to freshen up an otherwise older, slightly over the hill, old Port.

[Bradley Bogdan]

well my brother and my uncle had some glasses yesterday evening and enjoyed it.
it didn't really improve anymore between day 4 and day 5.

and as it became more of a tawny i prefer it blended with Noval Black to give it some more freshness.
this probably is 'not done' but i like some experiments. 2 parts 85 and one part Black worked well for me

Bradley Bogdan, i found it on a website for second hand stuff. some guy found it in his grandfathers basement and could only tell me that it was brought home from portugal, put in the basement and never moved anymore until now. so steady temperature, laying down in it's wooden box.

Very cool, a wine website, or just general resale?


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[Bert VD]

just a general resale website. i hardly ever find wine that way.