Region : Douro/ Portugal
Grapes : Touriga Nacional、Touriga Franca、Tinta Barroca、Tinta Roriz、Tinto Cao
Alcohol : 19.5% vol
Website: www.quintadonoval.com
🏅Vinous 96+ pts
🏅Wine Spectator 95 pts
🏅Wine Advocate 95 pts
Beware: Some Ports have a splash of white paint or chalk, called a “Splash Mark”, on the bottle. It tells you which way the bottles were cellared (splash mark up). You too should then store your Port Wine with the splash of white paint uppermost. This way, all the sediment collects uniformly on the same side.
The name of Quinta do Noval first appeared in landregisters in 1715.
The history of Quinta do Noval is punctuated by theintervention of visionary men: António José da Silva, merchant from Porto,acquired Quinta do Noval in 1894, previously devastated by phylloxera. Hebrought the estate back to life by replanting the vineyard.
Luiz Vasconcelos Porto, his son-in-law, is theauthor of a vast program of innovations. It transforms old narrow terraces intowide terraces, allowing more efficient use of space and better exposure to thesun.
Quinta do Noval forged its fame with its decisionto declare its Port Vintage and its Port Nacional Vintage 1931. Indeed, withthe global recession and the huge shipments of Vintage Ports 1927, almost allthe houses decided not to declare the Vintage 1931. This success establishesQuinta do Noval among the great names of Vintage Ports on the English andAmerican market, a leading position that has been maintained ever since.
Since 1993, Quinta do Noval has been part of theinternational wine group AXA Millésimes.
In 1997, the construction of a bottling anddistribution warehouse in Alijo, near Pinhão, made Quinta do Noval the first ofthe traditional Porto houses to centralize all its activities in the DouroValley.
In the 1990s, a hundred hectares of the estate werereplanted, practicing tailor-made vine management. We now have high qualitygrapes that ensure the excellence of Quinta do Noval Ports on the one hand andthe production of Douro wines since the 2004 vintage on the other.
🏅Vinous 96+ pts
Deep ruby. Knockout nose offers wonderful lift and verve, with distinctly vinous aromas of cassis, medicinal black cherry, licorice, pepper, violet, bitter chocolate and fresh herbs (Vosne-Romanee?). Wonderfully suave and understated on entry, then gripping and precise in the middle palate, and not at all overly sweet. Strong acids and a floral note of lavender contribute to the impression of lift in the mouth. As much great wine as it is great port, with a structure of steel.This showed even greater precision and spine with extended aeration. It will be interesting to taste this and the Fonseca side by side in 20 years, but of course these are two markedly different styles.
🏅Wine Spectator 95 pts
Intense, with cherry paste, fruitcake, singed spiced and apple wood flavors giving this a warm feel. Shows ample grip and lovely energy throughout, keeping this from being heady. Explosive fig and licorice snap notes on the finish kick this into second gear. A fun drink now, but this has fuel to burn.—Non-blind Quinta do Noval vertical (May 2018). Best from 2020 through 2045.
🏅Wine Advocate 95 pts
The Quinta do Noval Vintage 2003 has a gorgeous raisin, fig and clove-scented bouquet with more freshness than the whole of Pomerol combined. As Christian Seely quipped, “the vines are accustomed to the heat”. It unfolds in the glass, gaining vigor, if not complexity, with touches of leather, California raisin and dried flower emerging. The palate is medium-bodied with very supple tannins, dishing out lovely ripe and intense blackberry, leather, sage, tobacco and white- pepper notes. In this vintage, the Noval Vintage does not possess the breeding or the bravura of the Nacional and yet it remains a very impressive Port – a success for the vintage.
