A mind-expanding, monumental port

2012 Quinta do Noval This is an astounding wine with nobility and showmanship in every molecule.

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2012 Quinta do Noval, Late Bottled Vintage Port, Portugal(approx. £22.50,ocado.com, cambridgewine.com)

I will begin this paean to Quinta do Noval LBV by getting the grubby subject of price out of the way first. My guide-recommended retail price is a shot in the dark because every merchant listed has a different price and these often move around as we approach Christmas. In any case, there is rumour of a deal at Ocado which drags this monumental creation down to a mere £17.95 and if this is the case, please donate the balance to charity.

2012 QdN LBV is an astounding wine with nobility and also showmanship in every molecule. Unfiltered, and packed with flavour, this estate-grown, foot-trodden beauty sees all of the care and attention associated with vintage port and yet it is forward-drinking, lush, swaggering and all-enveloping.

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I have nudged this mind-expanding creation back a week, simply because there was no room in my Christmas column last week to feature a seventh wine. It is, however, one of the elite septet of the season. So please cut out and keep this page and tack it onto the others from last week after the bonkers-brilliant Passito and you will send your palate into orbit.

What better present to buy yourself this Christmas than a fully immersive vinous experience with 2012 Quinta do Noval LBV as the firework wine at the end of your dinner.

Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.