Quinta do Noval & Noval Nacional Vintage Port vertical tasting (2011-2020)

on 05/09/2022 at 4:00 pm

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port vertical; photo credit Sarah Ahmed

Not many Port houses could present a vertical of top tier Vintage Ports from 2011 to 2020 featuring every year. Quinta do Noval can and did. This superlative tasting provided a terrific insight on the last decade of Douro vintages.

Back-to-back vintages used to be an anathema, but Noval’s thick and fast declarations of consecutive vintages are now hardly novel. Although they’re not ‘serial offenders’ like Noval, other top houses have gone back-to-back and even back-to-back-to-back this last decade.

Noval does go out on a limb, latterly in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Upon launching Noval Vintage Port 2012, Noval’s Managing Director Christian Seely outlined the approach thus: “Quinta do Noval has always marched to the beat of its own drum. Our approach is very clear: when we are convinced that we have a wine of sufficient quality to merit a declaration as Quinta do Noval, we do so. 2012 is an outstanding example of this”.

Focused on the cream of the crop, releases can be tiny to ensure that the Ports have the requisite quality, but l think it’s fair to say – and Seely would say it’s the point – the relative quality of each vintage shows. It certainly made for a fascinating insight into the 2011-2020 Douro vintages.

Having written up each of the Ports on release, I’ve given you the link to my initial post (with Noval’s vintage reports) alongside this year’s note, giving you have a window on their evolution.

N.B. I was ill and unable to attend the scheduled event on 20^th July, so I tasted the Ports on 21 July, a day after they had been opened. For Ports of this calibre it was no bad thing – they were open and expressive. A real delight. The only downside was that two vintages had been consumed on 20^{th –}the much vaunted 2011 vintage of Quinta do Noval and the 2013.

Here are my notes, kicking off with the youngest – the previously untasted 2020 Noval Vintage Ports. Here is Noval’s 2020 Vintage Report:

2020 was a hot and dry year, with a prolonged ripening period throughout the summer that led to an early harvest, as the grapes became fully ripe by early September. The resulting wines are extremely rich and powerful, voluminous, sensual, with great density. Tannic structure is immense, but with remarkable finesse. The Quinta do Noval Vintage is an unusually powerful and rich style for Quinta do Noval, but nevertheless retains the purity and freshness of Pinhão valley fruit that are typical of Noval wines. As usual, we made a strict selection of the best lots of wine from different parcels throughout the estate, with this year three different lots of wine from the Pinhão Valley and one from the Roncão valley making up the blend. Harvest was very short, from 1st to 22nd September, which is most unusual for Noval where normally the diversity of varieties, exposures and altitudes results in picking times ranging over a longer period. In 2020 the time to choose the right moment to pick each parcel was very short and the capacity of our three different lagar wineries was used to the full. The resulting wines are pure and aromatic, with remarkable density. We chose to allow slightly higher residual sugars than usual this year, and the result is a harmony and richness that is quite particular to this wonderful year at Quinta do Noval.

In response to my query about higher residual sugars in 2020, Seely replied: “The wines seemed so exuberant and ripe that we just felt a higher level of residual sugar was appropriate this year. And the resulting wine seems to confirm that this was a good idea!”

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 2020

An exceptionally deep, uniform purple hue hinting at the latent power. Bergamot and white blossom hints to the nose, with lashings of liquorice to the hyper-intense, pure core of blackcurrant and cassis fruit. You can smell the spirit but it does not jar in the least on the palate, such is its concentration of fruit. Supple tannins going through firm up, bringing sinew to the finish, with its spicy liquorice resonance. Brooding but, with fresh acidity and supple tannins, drinkable now if young Ports are your bag. But it would be a waste. Lots of potential. 19.5% Residual sugar 115g/l, Ph 3.68, TA 5.3g/l

Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 2020

Glass and doubtless tooth staining hue – the mark of 2020. A good black mark. The 2020 Nacional has a terrific vivacity to that colour – a touch more red than the regular Noval, which catches the eye on the swirl. True to form, it is altogether more restrained in the mouth – mineral and sinewy, yet with a floating quality. Lingering graphite/lead shot and lashings of liquorice are buoyed by an ever-present undercurrent of juicy, fresh blackcurrant and raspberry fruit. Reeling the fruit back in on the finish, fine lasso tannins have terrific finesse. Gorgeous. 19.5% Residual sugar 113g/l, Ph 3.66, TA 5.3g/l

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 2019

A velvety crimson hue, with parma violets, brush wood, 100% raw cacao – a sense of relative dryness and texture – with melded velvety chocolate tannins being part of the warp and weft. They bring a savoury dimension to the fleshy plum, raspberry and blackberry fruit. Spicy esteva lift and sweet parma violets linger on the robust finish. 19.5% Residual sugar 100g/l, Ph 3.63, TA 5.5g/l