LEFT A BIT

 I did some further 'fossicking' in the cellar (actually it's just a basement now as the wine cellar has gone after having sold off all the treasures and I haven't been buying any 'keeping' wines) I turned up a few more fortified wines that we will consume over the winter months.

Left to right are:

• Noval 10 y.o. (half bottle)
• Quinta da Noval 1997 vintage port (half bottle)
• Hardy's Whiskers Blake tawny 'port'
• Lauriston Reserve Muscat
• Noval 10 y.o.
• Warre's 1970 port
• Dalva 10.y.o.

The gems here are the Warre's 1970 and the Quinta da Noval 1997.

Warre's 1970 is rated as being the best vintage of Warre's produced which will make it interesting drinking after the outstanding 1983 (half bottle) we tried on the weekend and the subject of the previous post).

Here are a couple of reviews from tasters who have tried it over the last year:

I'm looking forward to trying our one. We have friends visiting in a few weeks so will likely open it then.

The Quinta da Noval 1997 is similarly well rated. Here a re a couple of reviews:

Again, I'm looking forward to trying it again.Being a half bottle we will drink this soon just between the two of us.

Both the Warre's 1970 and the Quinta Da Noval 1997 are fetching huge prices on the market and maybe if I had several bottles I might be tempted to sell but as we kept these bottles back when we sold all the ports and other good wines at auction a few years ago, these are for drinking.

The other ports (and the muscat) won't be great but we have had them for a long time (between 20 and 30 years) so while the styles don't improve in bottle should have mellowed quite a bit. Hey! We're set for the possible very cold winter we are going to have.

I'll post on the wines as we try them.

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PART 2

I had finished this post and then I went down to the cellar basement later looking for some old Zinfandel that I remembered having.

I moved the spare wheel to the trailer, my bike, the trailer tarpaulin cover, some old rope and fishing poles, several cartons of wine glasses and three big bags of golf balls and there was a box of old ports - staring me in the face all the time!

I also discovered, along with a few bottles of old American Zinfandels an unopened case of Novum NZ Pinot Noir 2019 vintage. I'd totally forgotten about this. I'll post on these wines later as this post is about port.

I brought the six bottles of port upstairs and cleaned the bottles.

They are:

• Taylors 20 year old
• Silval 1997 vintage
• Noval forty year old
• Noval Late Bottled Vintage 1994 (three bottles)

Sadly one of the Noval LBV has leaked but at least we have two more.

The wine is stuffed.

This again was a treat as I'd totally forgotten about these as well.

The Silval, another from the Quinta da Noval stable, while not being as renowned as the main Quinta da Noval wine has had some pretty good reviews.

The Taylors 20 year old and the Noval 40 year old (20 years and 40 years aged in barrels) should also be interesting drinking. The 1994 Noval Late Bottled Vintage  (usually spending a couple of years aging in barrel before bottling) will be a good medium between the vintage ports and the barrel aged ones. All three of these are fetching high prices on the market and getting great reviews. Once again I'll post a review as we taste them. Her Indoors is already making noises about opening one of the half bottles tonight - not waiting for the weekend!