Noval 1931 at The Saintsbury Club

The Saintsbury Club celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2021 and, after an absence in 2020 due to the pandemic, we all sat down to a splendid dinner at the Vintner’s Hall in London. There with some wonderful wines, not least an Impériale of Haut Brion 1986 (‘tight-knit structured, with wonderful finesse), Château Latour 1990 (‘ripe, structured with rather extractive tannins, but proper Claret’) and Blandy’s 1920 Bual (‘glorious, lifted and beautifully poised’) which I have written about many times on this website. There was a surprise however, from the year that the Saintsbury Club was founded:

Quinta do Noval 1931 *****

Some bottle variation was to be expected, thankfully the wine in my glass was outstanding: remarkable colour, still deep at the centre with a broad browning rim; tight-knit and absolutely all-together on the nose with wonderful fragrance and freshness, similarly firm spicy-sweetness on the palate with demerara sweetness and bitter chocolate intensity at the core, lovely firm tannic grip and beautiful length and pizzazz (not a word I often use in a tasting note!). 19