Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 2023

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.
The selection of 2280 cases of 12 bottles represents 7.4% of our Port wine production in 2023.
 
Characteristics of the vintage 2023
The viticultural season of 2022/2023 was characterised by a warm and wet winter, an exceptionally hot and dry spring, and an average summer.
Budbreak occurred during the first half of March, with a delay compared to the average of recent years, then compensated by an advance of 5 to 10 days until the veraison stage due to the high temperatures recorded in spring.
The rainfall recorded at Quinta do Noval during the viticultural year (October 2022 to September 2023) was 838 mm, more than double the amount observed during the same period in 2022 (364 mm) and exceeding the 1970/2000 average by 198 mm. These precipitation data indicated a concentration of rainfall over the winter months.
Flowering took place between the second and third week of May, with some weather conditions conducive to healthy development.
Veraison was observed in Touriga Francesa and Tinta Roriz on June 19th and continued until July 7th. In Touriga Nacional, veraison only occurred on July 13th.
 
Reviews and Awards:
. 96 points in Revista de Vinhos;
. 19 points in Vinho Grandes Escolhas.