Winemaker Notes
Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 2022 is characterized by outstanding power, structure and purity. It reveals beautiful aromas such as sweet dark fruits alongside bold, savory, spicy earthy tones. It's fresh and vibrant, with a touch of mint and licorice. The palate is rich and opulent, showcasing delightful sweet fruits. There's an astonishing freshness present. It's beautifully pure and concentrated, with outstanding fruit clarity and structure. The palate bursts with super-concentrated, dense, and pure blackberry fruit. Its incredible intensity, tannic expression and depth are remarkable.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Movng to the 2022 Vintage Port Nacional, this comes from a tiny parcel in the estate vineyard planted to ungrafted vines and is a field blend of Touriga Francesa, Tinto Cão, Touriga Nacional, Sousão and Tinta Roriz that spent 18 months in barrel and larger chestnut casks. It's a dramatically different wine compared to the classic cuvée and is tight and inward, with an incredible sense of purity in its blue fruits, graphite, cedary herbs, tobacco, chocolate, and crushed stone-like minerality. Despite coming from a scorching hot year, this stays vibrant and fresh, with incredible precision in both its aromatics and on the palate. It has less residual sugar (85 grams per liter) than the classic cuvée, and it certainly tastes that way as well, with a more structured, reserved style, yet it brings phenomenal extract and concentration that's flawlessly balanced with ripe tannins, notable acidity, and one hell of a finish. Unquestionably, for drinking any time over the coming 20 years, the classic cuvée is where you'll want to go. However, this is a legend in the making. It needs 15-20 years to hit maturity, and I suspect it will provide 50, 60, 70 years or more of prime drinking.
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James Suckling
With only 2,400 bottles made for the world, this is one of the rarest Ports, produced from a small plot of vines 100 years old and older growing on their own roots in a section of the Noval estate. Such finesse and elegance at first, then power and structure as the wine fills the palate with blackberry syrup, creme de cassis and cocoa. Long, lacy finish lasts for minutes. Best from 2037.
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Wine Spectator
Dense and dark, with a burly edge as walnut husk, singed alder and warm earth accents peek out from a core of steeped black currant and blackberry reduction flavors. The finish leans to the frankly dry side, with espresso crema, licorice root, bay leaf, baker's chocolate and menthol accents adding to the impressive range and detail. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Cão, Sousão and Tinta Roriz. Best from 2040 through 2065.
One of the oldest port houses, Quinta do Noval is also arguably the greatest. It is unique among top port houses in that most of the ports are made from estate-grown fruit and, notably, all of the vintage Noval wines are from the single Quinta do Noval vineyard. In addition, it is difficult to elaborate on Quinta do Noval without mentioning Nacional, the legendary port made from a 6 acre parcel of ungrafted vines. When declared, only 200-300 cases of Nacional will be made, and instantly become the most sought after port in the world. Many vintages of Nacional are considered as the finest ports, and some of the finest wines, ever made.
Noval is mentioned in land registries going back to 1715, and has been sold just twice in that time, once in the late 19th century, and to its present owners in 1993. Noval has, however, a reputation for being an innovative, independent producer. Noval’s focus on its vineyard and estate ports distinguishes it, but there are numerous other areas in which it has been a pioneer:
- Noval was the first to introduce stencilled bottles in the 1920s.
- Noval pioneered the concept of Old Tawnies with an indication of age.
- In 1958, Noval was the first to introduce a late-bottled vintage (LBV).
The astonishing terraced vineyards of Noval, perched above the Douro and Pinhao rivers, are an infertile schist, and not soil as much as sheer rock. The elevation of the vineyards goes from just above river level to 1,200 feet, with density at about 2,000 vines per acre, and vines producing on average 30-35 hectoliters per hectare. The tremendous rewards of the work done at the estate over the last fifteen years are visible across the range of Noval ports, and have placed Noval a step ahead of everyone in the Douro.
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.