Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very reserved LBV with attractive grip and density, and one that's not too sweet. Medium body, a fine tannin texture and a flavorful finish. Drink or hold. This will age nicely.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Unfiltered Late Bottled Vintage Port, a typical Douro blend, was bottled in 2016 with a long cork and 101 grams per liter of residual sugar after five years in barrel. This is brilliant. Sappy, intensely concentrated, remarkably complex and beautifully structured, this young LBV has plenty of room to grow in the cellar, too. It is young, unevolved and capable of development. The complexity that it has now, with a trace of herbs, rhubarb and generally classic Port flavors, is a hallmark, but that will increase and become more varied with age. The tannic pop will also calm a bit more, not that this is undrinkable now. This reeks of potential. Noval is one of my favorite unfiltered LBV producers and this is a fine moment for it. With a few years of bottle age, it might even seem better as it acquires more complexity.
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Wine Enthusiast
Coming from the great 2011 vintage, this is an impressive wine. It is rich, smooth and generous in the mouth. Dark dried fruits and acidity create a wine that is on the dry side of Ports. The tannins and acidity and the fact the wine is unfiltered mean it could age although ready now. Drink until 2030.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Features lots of pepper notes to the plum and dark cherry flavors, with graphite accents. Creamy and spicy on the finish, showing hints of milk chocolate.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F. To learn more, see our full Port Wine Guide
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.