I’m hugely excited by table wine developments in the Douro, as regular readers of my columns will know. One of the most recent notes to go up in the ‘Tastings’ section of this site is for the 2004 Noval table wine (and its second-wine sibling, Cedro do Noval) both of which I found hugely impressive – see the note in that section. Marie-Louise Schyler of AXA tells me that UK stockists for Cedro do Noval include Fine & Rare, Tanners and The Vine King (price circa £10.99) and, for the Noval 2004 itself, Fine & Rare, Noel Young and Tanners (price circa £34).

The Cedro is great value and, believe it or not, so is the Noval … in that it is not only a profound terroir wine but also a beautifully composed fine wine. The Douro will quickly rival Priorat and Ribera del Duero as being one of Iberia’s greatest red-wine locations, and may even surpass them. Bravo Noval for getting it so right, so quickly.