Noval declares ‘irresistibly delicious’ 2013

Quinta do Noval has become one of the few Port houses to declare a 2013 vintage Port, although poor weather during harvest means that volumes are limited to just 1,200 cases.

A view across to Quinta do Noval’s vineyards

Quinta do Noval’s managing director Christian Seely summarised 2013 as being “marked by a sunny and dry growing season” with “outstanding” potential in terms of quality, even if the onset of rain meant that “much of this potential was not fully achieved”.

Despite this disappointing end to the growing season, he recalled that some of the lots presented in the tasting room were “irresistibly delicious”, describing the final blend as “elegant, pure, aromatic, perfectly harmonious and typical of the Quinta do Noval Vintage style.”

Seely also highlighted Noval’s recent policy of declaring a vintage wherever possible, “even of very small volume, if even a tiny proportion of the harvest has the quality and style of a Quinta do Noval vintage Port.”

In this case, he noted that the 1,200 cases declared represent “less than 3%” of production from Noval’s 143 hectare estate.

Noval joins a small number of houses to declare a 2013 vintage from grapes picked before the wet weather struck. For the most part however, this has been a year of single quinta vintages, while many houses have focused their energy on the growing demand for mature tawny styles.