Quinta do Noval 2017

The last time I tasted the 2017 Vintage Port, I posed the question of whether it was the best ever? Perhaps. Picked from 21 August to 28 September, it is beautifully-defined on the nose with layers of black cherries, allspice, violet and cassis, becoming more floral with time in the glass. Returning after 10 minutes and juxtaposed against the 2016, there is just a little more VA. The palate is well-balanced, very structured with wonderful tension. I love the texture of this Noval, which is slightly granular towards the finish and brims with life. Outstanding. Tasted at the Quinta do Noval tasting at Spring restaurant in London. Drink 2030-2080.

Big grip in this wine with dark blackberries, blueberries and floral notes. Fine tannins. Ripe but sweet and pretty. Shows a lovely finish. Try after 2027.

This is well-packed, offering the vivid plum, boysenberry, cassis and açaí berry fruit profile of the vintage, along with a dark edge of tar, baker's chocolate and salted licorice that courses underneath. The long finish lets the fruit play out, keeping singed alder and chai spice hints in the background. Smolderingly seductive. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Cão, Sousão and Tinta Roriz. Best from 2035 through 2060. 3,500 cases made. — JM

The 2017 Vintage Port is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão and Sousão, aged for 18 months in old wood vats. It comes in with 99 grams of residual sugar. This was bottled in May 2019, about a month before tasting, but I made sure at least some of it had a lot of air. Aromatic, wonderfully fragrant and laced with eucalyptus, this then shows typical Noval focus and power. A couple of hours in a glass simply increased the power. More intense than the very fine 2016, it grips the palate and shows rather significant astringency. As wonderfully aromatic as this is, there the 2016 might have the edge. 2030 - 2075

Opaque purple colour, with a sweet and spicy nose of mocha, toasted almonds, wood smoke and concentrated black fruits. The palate is thick, rich and fleshy, with a dense and heady core of fruit coating the mouth and softening the powerful but succulent tannins. This is a real blockbuster, but the creamy, rounded opulence is balanced by the superb precision and delineation of fruit. This drives through to the finish which is ripe and exotic but with great finesse and tension. Outstanding.

Noval spills over into two valleys from Pinhão to Roncão which contribute two very different terroirs to the blend though both predominantly south facing: very unusual on the nose, heady Douro aromas with a touch of dust and eucalypt, wild and aromatic; dense, smooth and seductive on the palate with firm, dusty-minerally (schistous) tannins, beautifully integrated though still demure and lacking the freshness that characterize so many of these wines. 3,500 cases declared.