Wine Advisor
Quinta do Noval, Vintage Port 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2016 Vintage Port was picked mainly from 19 September in ideal conditions. It is more broody than the 2017 at the moment and demands a little more encouragement from the glass. I have been prudent with my reviews in the past, but this 2016 seems to have considerably improved in the four years since I last encountered it. More earthy in style, it offers lovely dusky black fruit, sage, a touch of menthol and star anis, unfolding in the glass with each swirl. The palate is medium-bodied with a velvety entry. Superb tension here, the acidity cuts through the richness of this Port with effortless ease. Linear, poised and mineral-driven, Vintage Port gets little better than this. Tasted at the Quinta do Noval tasting at Spring restaurant in London.
Reviewed by: Mark Squires
The 2016 Vintage Port is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão and Sousão, aged for 18 months in old wood. It comes in with 82 grams of residual sugar. This was in bottle for only about seven weeks when seen, but I made sure at least some of it had a lot of air. It looks super, with plenty of room to grow in the cellar. Christian Seely likes to say that this regular Noval and the Nacional are not better than one another, just different. In fact, I usually prefer Nacional, but in this vintage I make a case for equality and endorse that view. This was stunning from the first smell, promising concentration, intensity of fruit and great things to come. It had a 100-point nose that made me go "wow!" No wine I tasted had a better nose than this. Violets and blue fruits lead off, with a trace of eucalyptus. I tend to think Noval is a producer that always shows mid-palate finesse, but this seems pretty deep too. It is also intense. The tannins won't sear your mouth because the balance is impeccable. To be sure, it might close down, but it is surprisingly approachable now, notwithstanding that intensity. Rest assured that this lively young Porto still has all the materials to make old bones. Needless to say, "approachable" does not mean "ready." You need to toss this in the cellar for a decade, at least. Purists will say to double that or more. When the palate becomes as expressive as the nose—if it does—this will be entitled to an uptick. No pricing was set yet.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2016 Vintage Port was picked mainly from 19 September in ideal conditions. It is more broody than the 2017 at the moment and demands a little more encouragement from the glass. I have been prudent with my reviews in the past, but this 2016 seems to have considerably improved in the four years since I last encountered it. More earthy in style, it offers lovely dusky black fruit, sage, a touch of menthol and star anis, unfolding in the glass with each swirl. The palate is medium-bodied with a velvety entry. Superb tension here, the acidity cuts through the richness of this Port with effortless ease. Linear, poised and mineral-driven, Vintage Port gets little better than this. Tasted at the Quinta do Noval tasting at Spring restaurant in London.
About the Producer
Quinta do Noval is one of the oldest and leading wineries producing Port wine. Among the top port producers, Bird Park is even more distinguished by the fact that its grapes are picked from a single vineyard. Notably, the winery is known for producing Portugal’s best port wine, “Nacional”, a blend from a single vineyard of old vines in the domestic Touriga Nacional. Likewise, the winery also produces high-quality dry red wines from Portugal, the most anticipated wines from the Douro region, showing unparalleled depth and concentration, as well as rich fruit and spice. trait. "Douro" means gold and gold in Portuguese, so the Douro River is also called the Golden River Valley. The Bird Park is located in Pinhao Village, the most central part of the Douro River region. The winery now has about 247 acres of vineyards. The Bird Park was created in 1715, originally owned and operated by the Rebello Valente family for over a century, and passed on to Viscount Vilar D'Allen by marriage in the early 19th century , a man with a passion for wild dances. In the 1880s, due to phylloxera damage, like other local wineries, Bird Garden was also for sale. In 1894, it was sold to Antonio Jose da Silva, a famous local businessman, who replanted the grape The estate was reborn, and his son-in-law, Luiz Vasconcelos Porto, took over the management and has been managing the winery for nearly 30 years. Louis vigorously carried out reforms, widening the width of the terraces, increasing the light and the convenience of field operations, which is a great reform even by today's technical standards, and promoted the winery with the help of Cambridge, Oxford and other clubs to enhance the reputation of the winery. Bird Garden's reputation continued to improve, and the 1931 vintage was an iconic one. Due to the world economic downturn at the time, orders for Port wine fell sharply. During the year, only three wine merchants continued to operate. Bird Garden was the The only Portuguese producer at the time with continuous exports to the Anglo-American market.
