2018 Quinta do Noval
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The 2018 Vintage Port is fabulous stuff and has a quintessential bouquet of spiced berries, cassis, fresh plum, Asian spices, and dried flowers. More about elegance, finesse, and complexity than sheer power (especially when compared to the 2020s), it's medium to full-bodied and nicely focused on the palate, with perfect balance between its fruit, sugar, and alcohol. Brought up in old wood tanks and bottled with 100 grams of residual sugar, it already offers pleasure, particularly with lots of air (I followed this bottle for three days), but I suspect it will have 40 years or more of overall longevity given its remarkable purity and balance.
Punteggi della critica
Punteggio medio
Jancis Robinson MW
Neal Martin
Altre recensioni e punteggi
The 2018 Vintage Port from Noval, picked from 5 September, has a really lovely bouquet with black plum and cassis fruit, still with that faint tincture of fireside hearth, concentrated and supremely well focused. This is the most "vinous" recent vintage insofar that it veers away from a fortified wine, perhaps with less VA than the 2017. The palate has a satin-like texture on the entry, a little spicier than the 2019, hints of black pepper, graphite, clove and allspice, very harmonious and poised on the graphite-tinged finish. Excellent. Tasted at the Quinta do Noval tasting at Spring restaurant in London.
The 2018 Vintage Port is a field blend aged for 18 months in old wood vats. It comes in with 100 grams of residual sugar. This was bottled May 13, 2020. Simply gorgeous, this is aromatic, chock-full of flavor and wholly delicious—but that's just the starting point. It has a serious backbone too, perfectly countered by the mid-palate depth. More than lovely, it might well be my favorite of the 2018s I've seen thus far, if I were forced to pick just one. It is surprisingly accessible, in a way, but that's because the mid-palate soaks up the power. It was certainly still vibrant days later. It should age well, but let's be just a little conservative now in evaluation and drinking windows.
1,600 cases produced, which represents just 7% of the estate's production. Cask sample. Not the most purple colour, though it is certainly concentrated … far from the most youthful looking. Vital, peppery nose with real attack. Lovely, seductive breadth on the palate – beautiful balance. Perhaps not the most ambitious and longest lived of Noval's vintage ports but it's pretty perfect in its youth. Spookily so really, for a wine style that is traditionally going strong after many decades in bottle. I'm scoring it on current impression and know that it may fail the classicist's test. Some may criticise this for being a bit of wimp by vintage port standards. I wonder whether it should have been released as a Silval? (JR)