Vintage Port 2013

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The 2013 Vintage Port from Quinta do Noval is a "dangerous" fortified since every sip encourages another. Replete with blueberry, blackberry, allspice and dates on the nose, this is quite opulent and seductive. After 30 minutes it becomes more floral with scents of crushed violet, almost like a super-charged Margaux! The palate is similar: rounded and velvety in texture, not profoundly complex but my word, it slips down the throat easily. It does not carry the weight of a top flight Quinta do Noval, but it aims to charm and seduce thanks to that lovely pure damson fruit on the finish. Just delicious, but watch you don't get carried away. Tasted from a sample bottle at home." 
96 Points Vinous Media
 

"Noval has often in the past released a Vintage Port in years when other producers hold back. And, as in the past, the release is justified. For this is an impressive, dense and seriously age-worthy Port. While it has plenty of perfumed jammy red fruits and balanced acidity, it is the dark tannic character that will sustain this wine for decades. It could be drunk now for its fruit, although that would be a shame. Better to wait until 2030 and longer." 
95 Points Wine Enthusiast Cellar Selection
 

"The 2013 Vintage Port is a blend of 20% Touriga Nacional; 10% Tinta Roriz and 70% old vines (of which Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz predominated, the winery noted), and it was aged for 18 months in wood. It comes in at 94 grams per liter of residual sugar. This 2013 completes Noval's unusual trilogy of declared Vintage Ports in 2011-2013. The quality justifies the declarations. Showing more concentration than the fresh 2012, also reviewed, this is pointed, powerful and intense, with serious grip on the finish. The initial impression of lushness fades quickly, because this is all about the power just now. You shouldn't even think of approaching it now. This will need a consumer with a cellar and some patience. That patience should be rewarded in time. All that said, by the end of the week, after some six days open, it actually started becoming more approachable. It wasn't quite as intense as the 2011 or as open as the 2012. Falling in the middle, it will certainly need time to come into full balance and become more expressive. It will reward your patience." 
95 Points Wine Advocate
 

“Powerful and rich, with deep flavors of crushed red plum, dark cherry and driedn raspberry, featuring a shading of graphite and smoke.”
95 Points Wine Spectator
 

"Wow. Fantastic aromas of crushed berries, stones, light raisins and tar. Fullbodied, lightly sweet, with solid grip and extremely fine tannins. It lasts for nminutes. Very few declared this as a vintage but Noval decided to make a tiny amount. And they certainly made the right decision. Reminds me of the excellent but forgotten Noval 1967. This bottle celebrates Noval’s 300th anniversary.” 
94 Points James Suckling
 

"This wine is a blend of several lots Antonio Agrellos harvested in the ten days before rains hit the Douro. Up until that point, the season had been promising, with deep reserves of water from a wet winter, followed by an extremely dry summer. Noval produced 1,200 cases of this wine, their third declaration in a row, clearly a serious wine, but only hinting at what it might become. The power is immediately apparent; the fruit is not. Youthfully green, with a sharp edge to the tannins, this reveals a deep well of fruit that begins to spread through the structure as it envelops with air. Firmly closed for now, this shows a lot of potential and should provide fascinating comparisons to Noval's 2012 and 2011 as the wines age."
90 Points Wine & Spirits Magazine

As always this 100% single-quinta wine is drawn from Noval’s own vines. There are three core parcels, all near the winery—the terraces directly surrounding the winery in Pinhão, the vines in the Roncão Valley and a parcel overlooking the Douro River.  Each year, the blending proportions for the Vintage Port will vary depending on the vagaries of the vineyard.

THE SUPREME EXPRESSION OF THE TERROIR OF QUINTA DO NOVAL 

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, less than 20% of the production of our great vineyard terroir.