Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 2022

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port is characterised by its purity of fruit and a fine, delicate quality that is typical of the wines of the property in general, but which finds its most remarkable and enduring expression in the Vintage Ports.
Equilibrium, harmony, finesse and elegance characterise our great Vintage Ports, which are declared only when we are certain that the year has produced a blend, however small, that is worthy of bearing the name of Quinta do Noval Vintage Port.
Noval follows its own path in its approach to Vintage Port. If we believe that we have wines of the quality and personality to join the ranks of the Quinta do Noval Vintage Ports of previous years, we will bottle it and declare it, even if this means declaring several years in a row, and even if it means, as is often the case, bottling only a few hundred cases of Quinta do Noval Vintage Port, representing a tiny percentage of the total production of the Quinta.
Of course, in very great years, when there is unanimity among Port producers, and a General Declaration results, Quinta do Noval will declare its wine also, and perhaps with a little more wine than usual. But whatever the year, the standards of selection in the Noval tasting room are extremely rigorous, and even in the more generous years volumes of our Vintage Ports are always extremely small: at the very most, up to 15% of the production of our great vineyard terroir.
In the case of 2022, the selection of 2600 cases of 12 bottles represents 6.6% of our production.
 
Characteristics of the vintage 2022
2022 will stand out as a remarkably dry year with unprecedented weather conditions in our region. So extraordinary were these conditions that even our oldest and most seasoned vineyard workers could not remember ever having experienced anything similar. Nonetheless, this growing season also showed the remarkable resilience of the Douro's vineyards and grape varieties. The rainfall recorded at Quinta do Noval during the viticultural year was 364mm, 276mm below the 1970/2000 average. The weather conditions were favourable during flowering in May and during fruit set. With a high number of bunches, a good harvest was expected. From the 7th to the 15th of July a heatwave brought daily temperatures above 40°C, even reaching 45,5°C at Quinta do Noval - and it was on July 15th that Pinhão recorded Portugal's highest ever temperature at 47°C. From July 30th to August 10th, we experienced another heatwave with temperatures above 40°C. The high temperatures, combined with low relative humidity, contributed greatly to the optimum health of the grapes. We experienced very little vine related diseases and most plots were surprisingly green and free from water stress. The low disease pressure was clearly verified by the small amount of eliminated bunches at grape sorting in our wineries during harvest, and it also translated into more wine produced.
 
Reviews and Awards:
. 96 points in Revista de Vinhos;
. 96 points in Wine Spectator;
. 95 points in Wine Enthusiast;
. 19 points in Vinho Grandes Escolhas.