2006  

"Sweet crème pâtissière on the nose. Solid and very rich and impressive. Real depth and unctuousness and complexity. This is great stuff. Long and layered. So long! Complex." 19/20 Jancis Robinson

1946  

Château Sisqueille was one of the biggest estates in Roussillon, reaching around 200 hectares at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Sisqueille family was one of the richest in the area. All of the wines were carefully kept in the familiy cellar in original oak barrels (foudres and demi-muids) and bottled between 2005 and 2013. The wines are a blend of the 3 Grenaches, with a majority of Grenache Noir and smaller quantities of Macabeu and Malvoisie. -- While working for a co-op in French Catalonia, Phillipe Gayral visited many small family estates, uncovering the best fortified wines and grapes that populate Roussillon in the foothills of the Pyrénées. Perhaps his greatest discovery was the personal reserves most families kept in barrels for themselves - what the French call a "poire pour la soif" or "a pear for thirst" - often marking important years in family history or saved for rainy days or just to see how a particularly fine vintage would age. Over the course of the last 20 years Phillipe and his wife, Sandrine, began buying these very special foudres, building up the largest collection of " French Vin Doux Naturels" in the world and eventually founded Muse Vintage Wines in 2005. The Gayrals are passionate and meticulous, bottling these wines on their estate, and working with the French government and authorities of the region to access all of the relevant information for each wine they are releasing, allowing them to precisely identify the family, origin and vintage from which the barrels came. These extremely refined fortified wines represent the very best wines in the region, covering three appellations, Rivesaltes, Banyuls and Maury with vintages spanning from 1909 to 1985. True pieces of French history, they are now available for the first time in the United States.

2003  

1991  

"Incredible aromas of crushed blackberry and raspberry. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with a very velvety and round texture. Goes on and on. Gorgeous Vintage Port." - 94pts WS

1963  

1994  

"A blackstrap, powerful Port. Black, with intense aromas of raspberries, raisins, flowers and stems. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with a long, rich finish. Tannins pull at your palate. A wine for the future." -- 97pts WS -- "The 1994 Vintage Port is set for re-release. It has about 92 grams per liter of residual sugar. It's a beauty, with all that Dow power and structure that I've loved over the years--even after some hours of decanting. Intensely concentrated in flavor, without being jammy, this lingers on the gripping finish after starting with a touch of mint. Serious and brooding, it is not yet as complex and as developed as it could be--but this is Port and that will come in time. Be patient. In the meanwhile, if you must crack this now, give it a few hours in a decanter, to state the obvious. This is a terrific Dow's VP that is still growing and improving. It is still about its potential in some ways and it may well exceed expectations. It will certainly acquire even more complexity with more cellaring. Personally, I would try to give it at least another decade in the cellar." - 96pts WA

1983  

2019  

"The 2019 Vintage Port Nacional is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão, Sousão and Tinta Roriz, aged for 18 months in old wood. It was bottled May 4, 2021, with 100 grams of residual sugar and 19.4% alcohol. This opened rather differently than the regular Noval Port this report, showing more open and expressive fruit, more cherries and even more power as they both aired out. The aromatics are excellent here too, but more fruit driven. When I came back to both some two days later, this brilliant and graceful Nacional made the wonderful regular Noval seem clumsy. It's the difference in styles, really, and reasonable minds might differ in preference, but this Nacional has more precision and more finesse. It is brighter and laser-like focused with an expression of fruit that seems so pure that you can almost think they used a spoon to fill the bottle after just crushing the grapes. The regular Noval, by contrast, seems rounder, more full-bodied and richer, albeit less defined. They both have a fair share of power. On first taste, the regular Noval seemed less powerful. Two days later, it seemed more powerful, but the Nacional fruit was always more interesting and far more intense in its character. Three days later, there was certainly still plenty of firmness on the Nacional finish. If the structure is excellent, the fruit is sensational. Three days after opening, the fruit had not budged an inch, showing nothing but exuberance and youth. The juicy finish of this very fresh Porto seals the deal. True, it was in bottle only about two months or so when tasted, but its quality is not in question. If you want a collectible and can afford it, this is the easy pick. If neither of those is true, the regular Noval offers way more bang for the buck. Both have significant aging potential. As promising as the regular Noval is, however, this seems to have a lot more upside as well as a lot more "wow" factor. I have given this wine a drinking window that begins in about 10 years, but of course, that is a minimum for this as well as the regular Noval. These days, Ports are more refined, so you can theoretically start sooner, most of the time. In truth, it will need 20 years before it is firing on all cylinders. Purists will suggest longer." - 99pts WA

2019  

"The 2019 Vintage Port is a field blend aged for 18 months in old wood vats. It was bottled May 4, 2021, and has 100 grams of residual sugar. It was in bottle only a bit more than two months when tasted, but it seems quite brilliant, even so. Very concentrated, it adds controlled power and coats the palate. Tasted with some other 2019s, this certainly stood out for both concentration and power. It touches all the bases in terms of expressive fruit and structure, finishing dry and seriously. It seemed balanced enough to drink young, but that would be a mistake. For one thing, it steadily tightened as it aired out. It also increasingly showed gorgeous eucalyptus-laced aromatics. Two days later, it was notably more astringent. Four days later, it was very firm on the finish and better overall. In fact, that was a far better showing than on day one. This is plainly built for the long haul. I would expect nothing less from a fine Noval Vintage Port. It became more focused and precise as well...This is a powerful beauty, well justifying Noval's tendency to declare most every year." -97pts WA

NV  El Candado

El Candado; An intense color of mahogany with deep aromas of dried fruits (figs and raisins) and suble notes of chocolate and coffee. The palate is very smooth and velvety with prune notes and a very long finish.

1970