There’s such a purity of fruit here of sliced ripe cherries and crushed blackberries with blueberries, as well as fresh flowers. Medium- to full-bodied with ultra fine tannins that run the length of the wine. Really polished and silky. Medium sweet with pretty grip and presence. Reminds me of the perfect 2011 but with a little less concentration. Drink after 2030.

The 2020 Vintage Port Nacional is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto C?o, Sous?o and Tinta Roriz, aged for 18 months in old wood. It was bottled April 2, 2022, with 113 grams of residual sugar and 19.2% alcohol. Like its regular Vintage sibling in this report, this is on the sweeter side for Noval, although still well in normal range. This is pretty fine, but also like its sibling, probably not a true classic, considering the grandeur of this brand. And like its sibling, it also is simply delicious and irresistible, easy to drink on the younger side, for Noval. This does have more of a backbone than the regular bottling, though, and more upside potential in the cellar. With air, it quickly showed off the great fruit, tinged with a bit of red berries and eucalyptus. This is still a pretty fine Nacional, although not a great one, and it should develop well.

The 2019 Vintage Port Nacional is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto C?o, Sous?o 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.

The 2017 Vintage Port Nacional is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto C?o, Sous?o and Tinta Roriz, aged for 18 months in old wood. It comes in at 99 grams of residual sugar and was bottled about a month before this tasting after 18 months in wooden vats. In 2016, I might've made an argument that the regular Noval was better. In this vintage, this seems to be a clear choice, granting that Ports change constantly in their youth. Its siblings at all levels in the last few vintages are very fine, but this is an indisputable benchmark that seems to better them all. Rich and vibrant, this has plenty of stuffing and flavor, more than the regular Noval. Then, it adds layer after layer of power. A couple of hours of air makes both the flavors and tannins more intense. It is simply gripping—yet also remarkably fresh. It's a great Noval, and one of the shortlist candidates for "Wine of the Vintage." There were 200 cases produced.

The 2016 Vintage Port "Nacional" is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto C?o, Sous?o and Tinta Roriz, aged for 18 months in old wood. It comes in at 85 grams of residual sugar and was bottled April 13, 2018. This is plainly more intense than the regular Noval (not unusual), but that's not the most impressive feature. It is more impressive for the lifted fruit than the power. The fruit is carefully defined, precisely carved out of the mid-palate slab. The silky texture gives this a different demeanor than the regular Noval too, while the beautiful fruit has a different flavor profile. It is more red fruits than blue—it has far less Touriga Nacional, said winemaker Carlos Agrellos. It has more bright flavors like raspberries than plums. It adds that tannic pop and wonderful balance too. It is still oddly approachable—if you're a masochist, of course, and for the moment. It will be intriguing to see how this develops. It should close down pretty hard. Then, it will age gracefully for decades. Will it make people forget about that amazing nose on the regular Noval? Time will tell. No pricing was set in the USA as of this writing.