{"id":716,"date":"2010-06-02T23:42:33","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T23:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=716"},"modified":"2010-06-04T16:19:35","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T16:19:35","slug":"noval-black-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/portugal\/noval-black-port","title":{"rendered":"Noval Black Port"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’m a big fan of Port, but I recognize that the Port industry is not best known for its innovation. Shackled by the weight of tradition, and restricted to seasonal sales, it’s a sector in need of some new ideas. There’s pink Port, of course, which I find a bit odd, but which has the potential to bring new drinkers to the Port category. And then there’s the repackaging of proper Port.<\/p>\n

Quinta do Noval’s ‘Noval Black’ is a brilliant idea. The simple label and the direct name are inspired. The wine is pretty good, too, of the quality of a decent LBV with slightly grippy, sweet raspberry pastille fruit with a hint of raisiny richness. It’s dense, spicy and quite pure. I’m drinking it now and it is delicious.<\/p>\n

While I like the packaging, I think they bottled it slightly, in that the didn’t go far enough. They should have been a bit more radical: same name and label, but in modern 50 cl bottles. Or even using mock old-style bottles of the sort that Klein Constantia do for their Vin de Constance. And in terms of the wine, maybe they should push it a bit more, with greater fruit intensity and extraction. A black wine that startles the senses.<\/p>\n

For those who wish to know more, there’s a dedicated website (www.novalblack.com<\/a>), but it has a really annoying flash design with a daft birthdate entry system. Recommended retail is \u00a314.99 in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a big fan of Port, but I recognize that the Port industry is not best known for its innovation. Shackled by the weight of tradition, and restricted to seasonal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[54,350],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-portugal","tag-port","tag-portugal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":728,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions\/728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}