Quinta do Noval Vintage 2007 Port
€ 177.00
| Producer | Quinta do Noval |
| Region | Douro |
| Grapes | Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão |
| Ageing | 18 months in wooden casks |
| Alcohol | 19.5%vol |
| Serving | 12-15°C, decant before serving Keeps 2 days at most once opened |
| Scores | 98/100 Jamie Goode 96/100 Falstaff |
Vintage 2007: inky black, super-ripe fruit and velvety tannins.
Tasting note
Dark and inky black, with super-ripe fruit and spicy notes on the nose. Extremely elegant and well balanced, with big, velvety tannins and dense black fruit flavours, and an extremely long, deep finish.
The story
Noval’s Vintage Ports stand for purity of fruit and a fine, delicate quality: balance, harmony, finesse and elegance. They are declared only in the best years, and only when the wines meet Noval’s strict standards. Even then they represent just a small share of production.
The grapes are foot-trodden in the quinta’s stone lagares and macerate during fermentation for optimal extraction. The wine ages for eighteen months in wooden casks in the quinta’s air-conditioned cellars in the Douro before bottling.
Food pairing
A delicious digestif, also with rich aged cheeses, dark chocolate or chocolate mousse.
The producer
Quinta do Noval appears in the land registry as early as 1715 and lies in the Pinhão valley, in the heart of the Douro. In 1894 the Port shipper António José da Silva bought the estate, and his family ran it for almost a century. In 1993 Noval passed to AXA Millésimes, with Christian Seely at the helm, who had most of the vineyards replanted.
Noval’s most famous asset is Nacional: a small plot of ungrafted vines, never touched by phylloxera, right by the house. It yields a Vintage Port only in exceptional years, in tiny quantities. At Noval the grapes are still foot-trodden in stone lagares.
Critics & Awards
98/100 Jamie Goode | Tasted: Sep 2009
96/100 Falstaff | Tasted: Feb 2016
Dark, inky black with purple-ruby reflections. Initially restrained on the nose: ripe blackberries, liquorice, dried fruit, exotic spices and chocolate. Very complex on the palate, with powerful, ripe tannins, juicy dark fruit, sweet cherries and a long finish. Will gain yet more elegance with age: a vin de garde.
Dark, inky black with purple-ruby reflections. Initially restrained on the nose: ripe blackberries, liquorice, dried fruit, exotic spices and chocolate. Very complex on the palate, with powerful, ripe tannins, juicy dark fruit, sweet cherries and a long finish. Will gain yet more elegance with age: a vin de garde.
95/100 Tom Cannavan | Tasted: Jan 2011
95/100 Wine & Spirits Magazine | Tasted: Dec 2009
18,5/20 Revista de Vinhos | Tasted: Dec 2009
18,5/20 Grandes Escolhas | Tasted: May 2021