Port ProDuCers anD shiPPers 227rented properties in the Roncão valley. Noval now extends to 109 hectares including
Canadas, with a further 35 hectares in Roncão. Wines bearing the name ‘Quinta do
Noval’ are produced entirely from grapes grown on the estate whereas ‘Noval’ signifies
a wine sourced from other growers. Around half the quinta’s production is foot trodden
in lagar. Noval’s technological makeover includes a robotic treader which works in the
existing stone lagares but each one is foot trodden first.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Quinta do Noval had a somewhat patchy record for vintage
Port, preferring to declare 1978 and 1982 to 1977 and 1983 respectively. Since AXA
took over, this slightly idiosyncratic approach to vintage declarations has continued with
declarations in 1994 and 1995 as well as 2003 and 2004. But since 1994 declarations
have been much smaller than in the past, sometimes amounting to less than a thousand
cases. The overall quality of Noval’s Ports has risen considerably and in recent vintages
Noval and Noval Nacional have been among the very best wines of the vintage. Since
1995 the name ‘Silval’ is attached to a vintage Port made from grapes grown off the
property. This is also rich, dense and well-made but is ready to drink earlier than Quinta
do Noval itself.
Noval’s entire range is extremely competent and well made. From the vibrant Noval
‘Black’ through a ripe, unfiltered LBV, the wines all retain freshness, power and depth.
Bolstered occasionally in the past by declassified Nacional, Noval’s aged tawnies are also
very good: attractively rich, with a hint of tannic grip still lingering in the ten-year-old.
Noval also maintains small stocks of colheita Port dating back to 1937. Colheitas and
LBVs are made entirely from fruit grown on the quinta.
Noval also make a good range of Douro wines (see page 254) and have a shop on the
waterfront at Vila Nova de Gaia.
offley
c/o Sogrape Vinhos SA
aldeia nova, 4430-809, avintes, Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 227 850 300
http://www.sograpevinhos.eu
Offley Forrester, as it used to be styled, is a company with a long and distinguished history,
which has been kicked from pillar to post for the last fifty years. Fortunately, the quality and
reputation of the wines did not suffered greatly in the process. The firm was established in
1737 by William Offley, one of whose ancestors was Lord Mayor of London and another
sheriff of Stratford. In 1803 he was joined in the firm by Joseph Forrester. Forrester’s nephew
became Baron Joseph James Forrester, the great nineteenth-century dilettante cartographer,
photographer and artist who did so much to open up the Douro before drowning at Cachão
de Valeira in 1862. Offley bought Quinta da Boa Vista from the Barão de Viamonte in the
1820s. In a complicated restructuring of the company involving litigation a century later,
Boa Vista became separated from Offley – only to be repurchased in 1979.
In 1962, Offley Forrester was bought by Sandeman. Three years later they sold half the
shares in the company to Martini & Rossi who picked up the remainder of the business