Made with wines from ten different parcels, it shows a deep colour and a refined, expressive nose of black cherry, wild berries and violets, with notes of rockrose, redcurrant, subtle spice and a hint of cocoa. The palate is full-bodied and concentrated, with firm yet polished tannins, balanced acidity and remarkable purity of fruit. The finish is long, persistent and elegant, revealing great depth, delicate hints of dried flowers and clear ageing potential.

The 2024 growing season was marked by a sequence of near perfect weather conditions. August and September, with their sunny days and cool nights, enabled the grapes to reach optimal ripeness. This year, the Touriga Nacional and Touriga Francesa varieties clearly emerged as the stars of the vintage.

Not all Late Bottled Vintage is created equal. Quinta do Noval pioneered this category when it bottled its first LBV in 1958. Right from the early days, Noval chose to treat this wine exactly like its Vintage Port before aging: focusing on using only great-quality, estate-grown grapes trodden by foot. And unlike the prevailing norm where heavy-handed filtration strips out so much, Noval bottles its LBV without filtration. The result is a considerably richer style that shares some of the depth and intensity of Noval’s VP.

Like the Vintage Port, the grapes are stomped in lagares (the traditional stone vats of the Quinta), then macerate during a three-day fermentation to obtain the best possible extraction of the polyphenolic compounds. From a terrific year for this grower’s Ports, it is a rich and complex wine with gorgeous notes of wild berries and blackcurrant fruit alongside hints of dried peel and Christmas spice. True to form, it’s polished and refined with admirable poise, complexity and a twist of quality dark chocolate and sweet tobacco on the lingering finish. The exceptional 2019 carries on this wine’s proud tradition of fine, structured tannins, great freshness and purity of fruit.

Noval’s Tawny NV is an elegant, fleshy wine with good richness and a fresh, tangy finish. Tinta Roriz, Touriga Francesa and Tinta Barroca are the major grape varieties here, sourced from both the estate and Noval’s A-category suppliers. This wine is aged for three years-plus in large oak vats before the final blending and bottling.

Noval’s wine tends to be darker and have more fruitcake richness than most entry Tawnies in the market. This is a legacy of the quality of material involved and the higher rate of evaporation that occurs in Douro—as opposed to Vila Nova de Gaia—which concentrates the grape’s natural residual sugars. Showcasing an intense brick colour, this has a complex nose with youthful cherry fruit and anise. On the palate, it is medium-sweet, with rich fruit and a fresh finish. Try it slightly chilled as an aperitif as they do at the estate (and in France), or enjoy at room temperature with dark chocolate desserts or coffee.

This is the youngest of the Noval Tawnies with an age indication. It’s made from 50% estate fruit with the balance from A-grade producers in the heart of the Douro Valley. Alongside Tinta Roriz, Touriga Francesa and Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional and Sousão now enter the story. The grapes are foot-trodden and fermented in the traditional lagares of the Quinta. After fortification, the wine is moved to old oak barrels of 640 litres for aging. 

Unlike Noval’s 10-year-old Tawny, this wine is made entirely from fruit cropped from the Quinta do Noval estate, so this is a step up in quality as well as age. In Port and the Douro, Richard Mayson has referred to this category as, “the epitome of balance combining freshness and delicacy with the secondary toasted almond and walnut complexity from ageing in wood.” Noval’s contribution to the 20-year-old field is pure premier league. Sublimely elegant and refined, there’s so much intricacy and toffee-scented depth. It’s a perfect example of how delicious and complex a 20-year-old Tawny Port can be. 

The most revered and collectable Port in the world, Quinta do Noval Nacional is a Vintage Port produced from a single 2.5-hectare parcel of ungrafted vines in the Quinta do Noval estate, right next to the cellars. This patch of vines consistently produces a sublime and unique wine which is widely considered to be the pinnacle of Vintage Port and indeed, one of the great wines of the world. It is also almost certainly the rarest of the great wines of the world as so little is released and then, only in the appropriate years.

The Nacional plot is not named after the grape Touriga Nacional (as is commonly assumed). In fact, the site is planted with a range of the best Port varieties including Touriga Nacional (which only accounts for roughly 30%), Touriga Francesa, Tinto Cão (about 20%, 60-year-old vines), Tinta Roriz and some Sousão. The average age of the vines is around 50 years. The wine is called Nacional (i.e. national) because it is produced exclusively from ungrafted vines (i.e. vines on their original rootstocks and therefore directly in touch with the soil of the nation). The yields of these vines are minuscule (around 15 hl/ha) and the tight bunches of small, deeply coloured grapes produce a massively profound, yet typically sublimely refined Port of rare finesse. The La Romanée-Conti of Ports if you like.

The most revered and collectible Port in the world, Quinta do Noval Nacional is a Vintage Port produced from a single 2.5-hectare parcel of ungrafted vines in the Quinta do Noval estate, right next to the cellars. This patch of vines consistently produces a sublime and unique wine which is widely considered to be the pinnacle of Vintage Port and, indeed, one of the world’s great wines. It is also almost certainly the rarest of the world's great wines as so little is released—and even then, only in the appropriate years.

The Nacional plot is not named after the grape Touriga Nacional (as is commonly assumed). In fact, the site is planted with a range of the best Port varieties, including Touriga Nacional (which only accounts for roughly 30%), Touriga Francesa, Tinto Cão (about 20%, 60-year-old vines), Tinta Roriz and some Sousão. The average age of the vines is around 50 years. The wine is called Nacional (i.e. national) because it is produced exclusively from ungrafted vines (i.e. vines on their original rootstocks and therefore directly in touch with the soil of the nation). The yields of these vines are minuscule (around 15 hl/ha), and the tight bunches of small, deeply coloured grapes produce a massively profound yet sublimely refined Port. The La Romanée-Conti of Ports if you like.