Quinta do Noval declares 2014 vintage Port

Port house Quinta do Noval has today announced the declaration of a small amount of 2014 classic vintage – its fourth declaration in a row.

Quinta do Noval MD Christian Seely acknowledged that the decision to declare another classic vintage to follow the 2011, 2012 and 2013 may seem controversial – on average there are three declarations in a decade – but justified it on the basis of quality.

In an email sent to the drinks business this morning, he wrote, “We continue to follow our slightly eccentric path at Noval. The fundamental principle for us is that if we have a wine that we believe is of the quality and personality required to be bottled as a Quinta do Noval Vintage, then we should bottle it and declare it, whether or not we declared a Vintage the year before, and even if the quantity of wine involved is very small. This led us to declare very small amounts of Quinta do Noval Vintage Port in 2012, 2013, even after the generally declared year of 2011.”

Continuing, he said, “We might have avoided controversy by not declaring this Vintage of 2014 in the circumstances, but I found the wine absolutely irresistible and had no hesitation at all in declaring this very small quantity of Quinta do Noval Vintage 2014.

“I think it is a beautiful Quinta do Noval, complete and harmonious, spicy and wild on the nose, with soft velvety black fruits, with good freshness and balance. Very seductive and perfectly delicious now, but will of course repay decades of bottle ageing and reveal its full potential over time.”

Just 1,000 cases of twelve bottles have been produced.

At the same time, the Port house has announced the release of Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 2001, but in even smaller quantities – just 250 cases were made.

Seely explained: “Although we declared Quinta do Noval Nacional 2001 officially in 2003, we did not release the wine for sale at the time.

“Nacional is always a powerful concentrated wine, but in its youth the 2001 was extremely backward and quite closed up, dense and very tannic. Since we had just declared and released the 2000 Nacional, we decided to lay down the 250 cases of Nacional 2001 that were produced and keep them back for release at a later date.”