The 2014 Unfiltered Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend from typical grapes like Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cao and Sousao, aged for five years in casks. This traditional LBV comes with a long cork. This was previously seen, but just before bottling. It's now in the USA. It is nicely aromatic, with a touch of eucalyptus. There is still a pretty reasonable expression of fruit in this difficult vintage - it seems classic - but it also seems slighter in the mid-palate now, a bit more compact, not quite as concentrated. There is a fresh feel and notable power; the structure is far ahead of and better than the fruit. You can see why Noval is releasing a 2014 while many others are releasing the 2015s. The structure is downright impressive, and this needed the time in cask. It tightens slowly but inevitably as it airs out. The fruit flattens a bit at the same time, though. This is still a pretty nice achievement in the vintage. The question here is whether this ages and improves as well as Noval's unfiltered LBVs normally do. It certainly has the structure to do so. I'm less sure the mid-palate will keep up. That doesn't mean it will fall apart (Noval doesn't make traditional LBVs that fall apart) and it will stay on a plateau for a long time. It just might not be as interesting as usual as time goes on. Let's take the end-date drinking window in smaller chunks for the moment. It's still worth leaning up on this LBV for now.

Mark Squires - Wine Advocate (90)