Full medium ruby. Deeply pitched aromas of cassis, black cherry and mocha. Sweet and fine-grained, combining a powerful structure with surprisingly harmonious, chewy black fruit flavors. Much thicker and denser than the basic 2003 vintage port served alongside it, and a level beyond that wine in fruit intensity. Finishes very long and suave, with tongue-coating tannins that will require at least another decade of cellaring. This wine showed considerably more flesh than the vintage bottling, which was totally shut down, and yet it largely avoids the roasted character of this very hot vintage.

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Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão; Sousão. RS 93 g/l, pH 3.73. Aged 20 months in used 640-litre (or bigger) barrels. Bottled May 2005.Very closed but with a subtle dark mineral note. Smoky, dry, firm, compact and yet still subtle. Slides effortlessly across the palate. Finishes like bitter chocolate but tannins seem finer even if more powerful than the Silval 2003 tannins. Serious horsepower just raring to go but wonderfully streamlined.  (JH)

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The dense 2003 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port displays an impenetrable black robe. Its profound aromatics exude notes of Damson plums, blackberries, fresh herbs, flowers, and hints of vanilla. Built for the long-haul, this refined wine reveals massive thickness, concentration, and depth. Its plummy character is redolent with black cherries, violets, pepper, and figs. Even after 4 days of air this intense effort was firmly backward (possibly even more so than immediately after opening!).

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Fantastic aromas of blackberries, licorice and cherries follow through to a full-bodied palate, with well-integrated tannins and a long finish. A classy young Port. Could be a remake of the 1947. 100 cases imported.

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Inky with full opacity and I imagine that will be the case for a decade or more, as VP doesn't get much darker than this. Tight as a snare drum initially, I continued to revisit this wine throughout the night at Noval with the 2006 Harvest Tour gang. This Nacional is full-bodied but my sense is that there is more massive richness in the regular bottling of Noval, although the Nacional does seem more powerful with a structural frame which is bigger. It offers very juicy black cherry and boysenberry flavors along with profoundly ripe tannins, which lead to an intense and lingering black cherry aftertaste. This is like taking a midnight joy ride in a Ferrari on a curvaceous mountain road without headlights! Just hold on tight and enjoy the ride. 225 cases were produced.

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