Quinta do Noval Vintage 2022

Reviews and awards:
96 points Wine Magazine;
19 points Grandes Escolhas Wine.

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port wine is characterized by its purity of fruit and a fine, delicate quality that is typical of the estate's wines in general, but which finds its most remarkable and lasting expression in Vintage Ports. Balance, harmony, finesse, and elegance are the hallmarks of our great Vintage Port wines, which are declared only when we believe that the year has produced a batch, however small, worthy of the Quinta do Noval seal. 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 Quinta do Noval's Vintage Ports...
Regarding the wines from previous years at Quinta do Noval, we do not hesitate to declare and bottle them, even if it means doing so in consecutive years and, as is often the case, bottling only a few hundred cases of Quinta do Noval Vintage Port, which only represents a small percentage of the Quinta's total production. Of course, in great years, when there is unanimity among Port wine producers and a general declaration, Quinta do Noval also declares its wine, and perhaps in greater quantities than usual. But in any given year, the demands in the tasting room of...
Noval is always extremely rigorous, and even in the most generous years the volume of Vintage Port declared is extremely small: at most 15% of the production from our great terroir. In the case of 2018, the selection of 1600 cases represents only 7% of the total production.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HARVEST
Following a dry winter, the 2018 colheita was characterized by very low temperatures and high rainfall until mid-summer, followed by a hot and dry end to summer. Flowering began late, but under good conditions. After a prolonged summer period, the high temperatures and limited water conditions were ideal for the richness of anthocyanins in the skins and for optimal grape ripening. At colheita time, the health of the grapes was excellent. The harvest took place between September 5th and October 13th, with favorable weather conditions, quite high temperatures, and no rainfall. The colheita produced high-quality wines with good levels of sugar, acidity, and phenolic compounds. The Ports are exceptional with remarkable subtlety.

TEST NOTE
The wine is wonderfully ripe, full-bodied and exuberant, with spices on the nose, long and very fine tannins, in a classic purity and elegance characteristic of Noval.

WINEMAKING
The grapes are foot-trodden in the lagares (wine presses) to obtain the must, and then macerated.
during fermentation to obtain the best possible extraction of aromas, color and tannins.