Respected Port house Quinta do Noval came relatively late to the Douro table wine revolution, but they arrived with a splash when they released their inaugural 2004 wines last year (see my earlier report here). Tonight I revisted one of these wines: the 2004 Cedro do Noval. It’s just a really good wine, and whether the Douro can invent more wines of that sort of quality at that sort of price (retail = £10), next its future as one of the world’s great wine-growing districts is assured. It tastes of the Douro, I reckon - although it’s clearly an impossible (an undesirable) task imposing a restricted Douro style on all of its red wines.

Cedro do Noval 2004 Douro, Portugal
This Douro table wine is one of the best-value examples of that genre around, and I reckon it can compete effectively with many of its more expensive peers. The nose is complex with dark cherry fruit and some spicy, minerally depth. It’s ripe and sweet, but savoury and balanced at the same duration. The palate has some savoury tannic structure, some ripe cherry fruit and a pleasant plummy bitterness. Good acidity keeps it fresh. An appealing, dense, savoury wine that displays some warm-climate ripeness allied with old-world savouriness. 91/100 (c. £10 retail)