NV Noval 40 Year Old Tawny
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Tasting notes
The NV 40 Year Tawny is a blockbuster Tawny! Coming all from the estate vineyard and aged 40 years or more in 640-liter oak barrels, it has a touch of ranico-like character as well as beautiful caramelized fruits, toasted spice, cigar, and walnut/nuttiness. Ripe, heady, full-bodied and beautifully complex, it’s going to be perfect for sipping at the end of a meal over the coming couple of decades.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The NV 40 Year Old Tawny Port was bottled in 2016 with a bar-top cork and 169 grams per liter of residual sugar. The back label talks of "freshness," which seems odd for a 40 Year Old, but Noval delivers all that and more here. The concentrated flavor burst on the lively finish shows touches of molasses and this is far more intense than the other Noval tawnies this issue on all fronts. However, its calling card is not intensity, but its amazingly youthful and fresh demeanor. The lift to the fruit gives this an irresistibly juicy finish, letting all those flavors linger beautifully. It is smooth, sensual and impeccably balanced, never obvious. This is quite fine.
Burnt umber colour. Deliciously complex aroma. Cooked apple and apricot and spiced caramel without the sweetness. Precise and focused on the palate, a lovely shape, with length, and richness in all the right places. Tangy barley-sugar finish. (JH)
Bottled 2010. Subtle, richly spiced aromas, pickle, nuts, gentle dried red fruit character, very slow fade, surprisingly bright citrus lime fruit in the middle. Tremendous. (RH)