Quinta do Noval Vintage 2020

The wine ages for 18 months in oak casks, in the Quinta's acclimatized warehouses in the Douro demarcated region, before being bottled.

QUINTA DO NOVAL VINTAGE 2020 Quinta do Noval Vintage Port is characterized by its purity of fruit and a fine and delicate quality that is typical of the estate's wines in general, but which finds its most notable and lasting expression in Vintage Ports . Balance, harmony, finesse and elegance are the hallmarks of our great Vintage Ports, which are declared only when we believe that the year has produced a blend, however small, worthy of the Quinta do Noval stamp.

Quinta do Noval follows its own path with regard to Vintage Port wines. If we believe we have wines with the quality and personality of the Quinta do Noval Vintage Ports of previous years, we do not hesitate to declare and bottle them, even if that means doing it in consecutive years and, as is often the case, bottling just a few hundred cases. of Quinta do Noval Vintage Port, which only represent a small percentage of the Quinta's total production.

2020 HARVEST CHARACTERISTICS

2020 was a hot and dry year, with a long maturation period that culminated in an early harvest with ripe grapes in early September. The resulting wines are extremely rich and intense, full-bodied, silky and with a great density. The tannic structure is immense but with a remarkable elegance. Quinta do Noval Vintage presents an unusually concentrated and intense style for this wine, but maintains the purity and freshness of the Pinhão valley, typical of Noval wines. As usual, we made a rigorous selection of the best lots from different plots of our vineyard. This year the final lot is made up of 3 different lots from the Pinhão valley and a lot from the Roncão valley. The harvest was very short, from the 1st to the 22nd of September, which is unusual for Noval, where normally the diversity of grape varieties, exposures and altitudes result in long harvest periods. In 2020, the time to choose the right time to harvest each plot was very short and the capacity of our three wineries in lagares was fully utilized. The resulting wines are pure, aromatic and with a remarkable density. We opted this year to allow slightly higher residual sugars than usual, and the result is a harmony and richness that is very particular to this wonderful year at Quinta do Noval.

VINIFICATION: The grapes are trodden by foot in the lagares to obtain the must, and then macerated during fermentation to obtain the best possible extraction of aromas, color and tannins.