Quinta Do Noval, Vintage Port, 2017

Unusually for Vintage Port, Quinta do Noval is the product of one estate located in the heart of the Douro valley with 145HA under vine. The estate has a plethora of different altitudes, expositions and varietal make-up terroirs from which they have selected the finest grapes to go in to their flagship Vintage Port. In fact just 3,500 cases have been produced which equated to less than 10% of the production. All still traditionally foot trodden in stone lagares. In Christian Seely’s words, the “fundamental difference between the two years is that we had just 350mm rainfall in 2017 and more than twice as much in 2016. 2016 is magnificent but the extreme conditions of 2017 produced a wine of extraordinary concentration and layers of deep complexity with an overall velvety feel and slightly wild and special aromatics. We love this wine and declared it with no hesitation, one of the best ever.” In our mind Noval is always the most herbal of the big names with medium-bodied pure red and black fruit. True to form the 2017 exudes notes of wild blackberries, forest floor, rosemary and oregano, rocky rose petal notes with mint and blackcurrant coulis.