Quinta do Noval Port 2015

Sleeping Beauty is an odd narrative, even if you take out the flagrant patriarchal subtext, it's pretty weird. If you're an evil fairy why would you pick a needle of a spinning wheel as your weapon to kill a princess, surely you should pick something unavoidable like a... umm... castle? Curse her with the prospect of being crushed by a collapsing castle not a spinning wheel. She's a princess, surely, she could hire someone to do all her sewing for her! At the same time Auroa, dude, you had one job; don't touch a spinning wheel spindle until after your 16th birthday! You can impale yourself on whatever you like when you're 17 but for now just rock some iron gauntlets or something. Did she listen? Of course not. Things worked out though after her nap, stuff was even better than before and she was a princess, her life was pretty great already.

It's a similar evolution in this wine. Quinta do Noval 2015 Vintage Port is absolutely delicious, it's intense, robust with a vigorous palate of red and black fruit and sweet spice. However, if you can resist opening it now and lay it down for a 10-year snooze when it wakes it will have developed notes of seductive raisened fruit, tobacco and leather. Now or in the future, we promise kissing this bottle will do the trick!

Quinta do Noval lies in the Douro valley in Northern Portugal where great Port has been produced since 1715. Noval is unique among the great traditional Port houses in its emphasis on the importance of the vineyard. It is significant that the company is named after its vineyard, that it is entirely based in the Douro valley, that its principal Vintage Ports, Quinta do Noval Nacional and Quinta do Noval are both single vineyards wines. The aim is to produce great classic Vintage Ports which are harmonious and elegant expressions of the terroir of Quinta do Noval. At Noval, the vineyard is at the heart of everything they do.