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Quinta do Noval declares 2021 vintage Ports
This morning has seen the declaration of three Noval Vintage Ports from the 2021 harvest – the classic Quinta do Noval, the Quinta do Noval Nacional and Quinta do Passadouro, which lies just below Noval, and was bought by the producer in 2019.
All the wines are made under the watch of technical director Carlos Agrellos.
Christian Seely, managing director of Quinta do Noval is very optimistic about this vintage – which had none of the harsh conditions of the previous year.
“Weather conditions in 2021 were in stark contrast to those of the preceding year,” he said, comparing the recent declaration to the 2020 harvest, which was extremely hot and dry, but produced “exceptional Ports” – and marked Noval’s tenth vintage Port declaration in a row.
As for the 2021 harvest, the vintage benefitted from a wet winter and regular rainfall in the month of April that “fully replenished much needed water levels in the soil,” according to Seely.
Considering the growing season in further detail, he recorded, “An early flowering in May was followed by a very hot month of June, with some stormy periods and hail, which fortunately did not affect our vineyards.”
Continuing, he said that “July and August were mild and sunny, with none of the extreme heat or water stress that we have seen in some recent years during these months.”
Such conditions “permitted slow homogenous ripening of the grapes, in excellent conditions,” and Noval began to harvest the red grapes on 26 August.”
After some rainfall in early September, the producer suspended the harvest for three days and then resumed in sunny weather with mild temperatures that permitted steady positive phenolic development right through to the end of the harvest on 8 October.
Seely said “there were no spikes in sugar readings, which enabled us to wait for optimum ripeness in each plot,” before noting that” the results were excellent for several parcels of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa and Sousão.”
He also said that “The Nacional and various other old vine parcels were exceptional,” while commenting that “the wines have a marked stylistic individuality, reflecting the particular conditions of the vintage, very elegant and balanced, with great finesse and very pure floral and black fruit aromas.
Concluding, he said, “Strongly aromatic, with dense firm fine tannins, the purity of the fruit and the elegance and balance are among the most striking characteristics of this lovely vintage year.”
With the 2021s marking the eleventh consecutive vintage from Quinta do Noval, this latest release is in keeping with the property’s strategy of declaring a ‘classic’ vintage Port from every harvest, but vary the quantities produced – in contrast to other producers who tend to release this top expression of Port on average three times a decade in more consistent quantities.
Commenting on this approach to db, Seely has previously said, “If in any given year, we have a wine of sufficient quality to be bottled as Quinta do Noval vintage port, even if the quantity is extremely small, which sometimes it is, then it is desirable thing to do, because if we don’t, it will never exist.”
As a result, Seely has said, “Since 2011 we have made a declaration every single year, because there has been a small or considerable quantity of wine that not only deserves to be bottled as Quinta do Noval, but is irresistible – and when I taste them, I’ve very glad they exist.”
In terms of how much the volumes made vary, he said in some years the property will make less than a thousand cases of vintage Port – with the 2014 release comprising just 741 cases, which was the smallest ever – when in others it is possible to make close to 5,000 cases.
Importantly, Seely has also told db that his policy of making a vintage Port as often as possible had paid off.
“Every single one of these declarations has sold out immediately on release; aside from what we keep back, the Ports sell out to distributors who sell them on – every single one has been a solid commercial success,” he said.
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