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SKU 885440
$986.95/bottle
Tariffs included
Out of stock
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The 2019 Vintage Port Nacional is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão, Sousão and Tinta Roriz, aged for 18 months in old wood. It was bottled May 4, 2021, with 100 grams of residual sugar and 19.4% alcohol. This opened rather differently than the regular Noval Port this report, showing more open and expressive fruit, more cherries and even more power as they both aired out. The aromatics are excellent here too, but more fruit driven. When I came back to both some two days later, this brilliant and graceful Nacional made the wonderful regular Noval seem clumsy. It’s the difference in styles, really, and reasonable minds might differ in preference, but this Nacional has more precision and more finesse. It is brighter and laser-like focused with an expression of fruit that seems so pure that you can almost think they used a spoon to fill the bottle after just crushing the grapes. The regular Noval, by contrast, seems rounder, more full-bodied and richer, albeit less defined.
They both have a fair share of power. On first taste, the regular Noval seemed less powerful. Two days later, it seemed more powerful, but the Nacional fruit was always more interesting and far more intense in its character. Three days later, there was certainly still plenty of firmness on the Nacional finish. If the structure is excellent, the fruit is sensational. Three days after opening, the fruit had not budged an inch, showing nothing but exuberance and youth. The juicy finish of this very fresh Porto seals the deal. True, it was in bottle only about two months or so when tasted, but its quality is not in question. If you want a collectible and can afford it, this is the easy pick. If neither of those is true, the regular Noval offers way more bang for the buck. Both have significant aging potential. As promising as the regular Noval is, however, this seems to have a lot more upside as well as a lot more “wow” factor.
I have given this wine a drinking window that begins in about 10 years, but of course, that is a minimum for this as well as the regular Noval. These days, Ports are more refined, so you can theoretically start sooner, most of the time. In truth, it will need 20 years before it is firing on all cylinders. Purists will suggest longer.
Benefiting from both the hot, dry Iberian climate as well as brisk Atlantic winds, Portugal is a perfectly situated country for vineyard cultivation and wine production. With a wine making history which stretches back thousands of years, it comes as little surprise that wine plays an important role in the cultural identity and practices of the country. The Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks and the Romans all had a hand in forming Portugal as an important center for wine production, and over the millennia, this resulted in each region of this beautiful part of Europe producing its own distinctive wines easily identifiable and separate from neighboring Spain's. Today, the varied terroir and climate across Portugal allows a great range of wines to be made each year, from the fresh and dry Vinho Verde wines to the famous and widely drunk fortified Port wines, and many in between.
Region
Porto
The magnificent city of Porto - the capital of Portugal - is located near the mouth of the beautiful Douro river, in the beating heart of the Douro wine region. The Douro region has been regarded as one of the most important viticultural region of Europe for several centuries, and was the third region to be officially recognized and protected as a wine region, with laws having been passed in the mid 18th century regarding its status. Porto is, of course, most famous for the production of Port wine, an aromatic and slightly viscous tawny colored fortified wine, with a fascinating history of seafaring, experimentation and innovation. The vineyards used in the region for the production of Porto's wines contain up to a hundred different grape varietals, resulting in the wide range of Port wines on offer today.
