Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
A dynamic and resonant blueberry blue. There's also boysenberry, pomegranate, bosky cherry and schist. It's ornate and vibrant-the potent fruit suspended by the tannin, then exploding into luscious chocolate blackness; the finish is notably refreshing.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Quinta do Noval Vintage Port is a star of the vintage. Dense purple-colored, it gives up an already complex aromatic array of lavender, Asian spices, incense, and an amalgam of black fruits with a hint of chocolate in the background. Plush and mouth-filling, this large-scaled Port manages an uncanny blending of elegance and power. Long and savory in the finish, it will continue to blossom for another 20+ years and drink well through its 50th birthday if not longer.
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Wine Spectator
Very complex, with intense aromas of squeezed tangerine, blackberry and blueberry. Full-bodied, medium sweet and chewy. Extracted yet balanced, with an intense fruity and grapey character. Tight and reserved on the finish. Best after 2015.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ripe and juicy, a wine that wears its heart on its sleeve. It is perfumed, with the 2007 freshness and a fine layer of nutmeg coming through the blackberry juice flavor. For medium-term aging.
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.