Quinta Do Noval declares ‘exceptional’ ports from 2024 vintage

Quinta Do Noval has declared 2024 for three of its Vintage Ports — Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 2024, Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 2024 and Quinta do Passadouro Vintage Port 2024 — following “particular favourable” conditions. 

Managing director Christian Seely, of AXA Millesimes, said the grapes had arrived in the lagares “ripe, healthy and beautifully balanced, with pure fruit, freshness and good phenolic ripeness” following very favourable growing conditions.

Budburst began early following a rainy winter and spring that had helped replenish water reserves in the soil. This was followed by a summer which started fairly cool, delaying veraison until July “and favouring a slow and even ripening of the grapes”, he said.

The topped-up water reserves helped sustain the vines throughout a dry August, particularly the older vines, although some of the younger vines experienced a degree of water stress. And with conditions remaining mild throughout September, the grapes were able to continue to ripen slowly and evenly, preserving “freshness, aromatic purity and balance”, Seely said, being harvested in perfect conditions.

“Several plots of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa and Sousão were particularly noteworthy,” Seely pointed out, while the Nacional vineyard itself — a 6-acre parcel of ungrafted vines, which dates back to 1715 and produces around 200-300 cases when declared — proved “exceptional”. Several old mixed variety vineyard parcels were also of “exceptional” quality.

The resulting wines show “great purity of fruit, structure and aromatic depth”, Seely said. “Precise, refined and very well balanced, with a remarkable combination of elegance and intensity.”

Although already “highly expressive in youth”, the possess the “structure, depth and balance required for a long and promising evolution in bottle” he added.

Quinta da Romaniera

Seely is also a co-owner of Douro estate Quinta da Romaneira, one of the largest estates in the region and within sight of Quinta do Noval, comprising around 412 hectares including 3 kilometres of river frontage on the river Douro.

The 2024 vintage was also declared, “a year of outstanding quality” that “expresses with great clarity the identity of the Romaneira terroir”, he said, producing a wine “of great purity, precision and elegance, with very fine floral aromas, intense wild fruit and a depth that always emerges in perfect balance.”

The growing conditions had allowed the team to wait patiently for the ideal ripeness of each individual parcel, with a very positive phenolic evolution and no loss of balance.

“The structure is firm and enveloping, the tannins are fine and the freshness is beautifully integrated, promising a long and harmonious evolution in bottle.”

It is a Vintage Port “of precise definition, intensity and character, with huge immediate charm, but also the balance and structure required for a long and rewarding development in the cellar.”

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