Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 2020

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

The most revered and collectable Port in the world, Quinta do Noval Nacional is a Vintage Port produced from a single parcel of un-grafted vines in the Quinta do Noval Estate. This patch of vines consistently produces a sublime wine which is widely considered to be the pinnacle of Vintage Port and indeed, one of the great wines of the world.

When ‘declared’ in the appropriate vintages (Nacional is only declared in years when it is thought to be exceptional, and these don’t always tally with the declared years for Noval), only 200-300 cases are made and these are highly sought after the world over.

Although the winemaking is almost identical to Noval’s Vintage Port, in some years the Nacional spends a few extra months in barrels of 640 litres. The corte and liberdade (treading) was performed by a group of six for three hours. It’s the purity, the precision, the perfume and the overall class that sets it apart from the more robust Noval Vintage Port.

About Quinta do Noval’s ‘Nacional’

GRAPES FROM UNGRAFTED VINES, IN A SMALL AREA AT THE HEART OF THE NOVAL VINEYARD, UNTOUCHED BY PHYLLOXERA, GIVE THE WINE ITS UNIQUE AND DISTINCTIVE PERSONALITY.

THE MAGIC OF THE SOIL

This is a wine that confirms something that is for me a deeply held belief. A wine is great because of the quality of the grapes, the character of the year and because of the place they come from. These things are far more important than anything we may do either in the vineyard or in the winery.We vinify the Nacional in the same way as the other grapes from the rest of the Quinta do Noval vineyard: foot treading in stone lagares, a simple if laborious procedure, and the result is always something very different for the Nacional wine compared with the wine from the rest of the Quinta. The Vintage Nacional is what it is because of the grapes and where they come from, not because of anything particular that we may do in the winery.

A DISTINCTIVE PHENOMENON IN THE NOVAL VINEYARD

Always different, and with a distinctive personality, it does not necessarily follow the same rhythm as the rest of the vineyard. In 1996 for example, which was not a declared Vintage year for the rest of the Quinta do Noval vineyard, the Vintage Nacional was outstanding, and we decided to declare it.

There are also years when we declare great Quinta do Noval Vintage Ports, when the Nacional just does not sing, so we do not declare it. 2007 was an example of this.

A RARE WINE

A demand for exceptional quality
Starting in 1994, we decided to declare the Quinta do Noval Vintage Nacional only when truly exceptional, something we have stuck to ever since. Every Vintage Nacional is a great Vintage Nacional. There are years when we might have been tempted to declare, but decided against it. We are custodians of the reputation of this magical wine, and in the long run that is what matters.

Tiny quantities
If the Vintage Nacional is in such great demand, it is partly because of the tiny quantities we produce, only 200 to 250 cases each year of declaration. It represents only a small percentage of Quinta do Noval Vintage production (1,200 to 5,000 cases per year of declaration), itself about 10% of Quinta do Noval production in Vintage declaration years.

The world’s most highly prized Port 
Owing to this extremely low level of production, the Vintage Nacional is sold only in very small quantities. The bottle of Vintage Nacional which reaches the market from time to time is sold at a very high price, a reflection of the exceptional quality and rarity of this, the world’s most highly prized Port.

WHERE DOES THE NAME ‘NACIONAL’ COME FROM?
The wine is called “Nacional” because the ungrafted vines that produce this wine are “attached directly to the soil of the Nation”, i.e. with no foreign rootstock.

WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF THIS PLOT OF UNGRAFTED VINES?
The exact origins of Nacional are still unknown because most of the estate’s records were destroyed in 1981, when the Quinta do Noval head office in Vila Nova de Gaia was gutted by a fire. Most of the Quinta do Noval vineyard was severely affected by the outbreak of phylloxera that devastated the region of Douro in the 1880s and 1890s. Like all the other wine-growers, António José da Silva (who purchased the estate in 1894) began to replant his vineyard with traditional Douro varieties grafted onto American rootstock. We can conclude that da Silva decided not to replant the Nacional parcel with grafted vines, as it had been spared by phylloxera.

LOCALISATION ?
The small plot of Nacional is situated in a section of the vineyard lying just beneath the Quinta, which is set due north-east and enjoys ideal exposure. There are about 6,000 ungrafted vines in the parcel.

SURFACE AREA & SOIL?
2 ha. As with the rest of the estate, the soil on the Nacional plot is composed basically of schist with a high potassium content and minimum quantities of nitrates, phosphates and organic matter. Despite the endemic nature of phylloxera in the region, the Nacional grapevine lives just as long as grafted vine, i.e. 50 years or more. Its very existence remains a mystery and triumph for viticulture.

GRAPE VARIETIES ?
The Nacional parcel is planted with the classic noble varieties for Port: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão and Sousão.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN VISIBLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NACIONAL VINESTOCK AND A GRAFTED VINESTOCK ?
At first glance, it is difficult to appreciate the difference. Nacional vinestock is slightly less sappy with a smaller body and branches and fewer leaves. The green of the leaves is not quite so bright. The grapes tend to be smaller than average with a high skin-to-juice ratio.YIELD ?
The yield from Nacional grapevine is lower than the other vines at Quinta do Noval. A vineyard like Quinta do Noval produces 30 to 35 hl/hectare. The Nacional plot produces only around 12 hl/hectare. Farming and harvesting are all done by hand.

HARVESTING ?
Owing to its north-eastern exposure, the Nacional grapevine is harvested end September/early October when the grapes are perfectly ripe. Every precaution is taken so that the two or three tons of grapes reach the lagares under the very best conditions.

VINIFICATION ?
Vinification of Nacional wine is exactly the same as for our other wines: treading in stone lagares and the addition of grape eau-de-vie to the partly fermented must.

MATURING ?
Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage is matured in a seasoned oak vat with a capacity of 2,500 litres.

WHAT ARE THE DECLARED VINTAGE YEARS FOR QUINTA DO NOVAL VINTAGE NACIONAL?
2019, 2017, 2016, 2011,2004, 2003, 2001, 2000, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1994, 1991, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1980, 1978, 1975, 1970, 1967, 1966, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1960, 1958, 1955, 1950, 1945, 1934, 1931

About Vintage Port

Vintage Port is one of the world’s most extreme styles. It’s only made in the best years when the ‘Vintage is Declared’. Taylor’s and Fonseca are two of the very best houses.

Take an array of red varieties with different personalities, throw them in a lagare, grab a couple dozen stompers and get them to tread the grapes, ferment it for a bit then pour in some brandy spirit leaving you with high sugar, tannin, acid, and, alcohol backed by rich fruit.

On face value how could it work? Like all the great wine styles in the world the top echelon, the best houses of Portugal have found a way.

The searing acidity of the best vintage ports and exceptional tannins balances the sweetness of the sugar, alcohol and of course fruit. Despite the strength of these superb wines they have amazing finesse, elegance, and, restraint.

The complexity of these wines offers such intrigue!

The Importance of Blending

At Yarra Yering we made a VP style, the Port Sorts, renamed Pot Sorts for export after naming rights for the use of Port were granted solely to the Portuguese.

Made from the traditional Port varieties, Touriga Nacional provides structural tannin backbone, earthiness, and a core of fruit. Tinta Cão fruit richness. Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) and Tinta Amarela the acid component.

In addition to the above the best known red varieties for Port production include the Touriga Francesa, and, Tinta Barroca but in total there are around thirty types of Port grape. Most of these varieties have relatively small thick-skinned berries which produce the dense concentrated must (grape juice) needed to make Port.

Although they may be planted separately, the varieties are normally harvested and fermented together. Each grape variety contributes its own particular character – such as the intense flavours of woodland fruit, delicate floral scents, exotic spicy notes or the wild resiny aromas of gumcistus – to the nose of the wine. The grape varieties work together like instruments in an orchestra to create a subtle, complex and multi-dimensional harmony.

Making Port

Port is a fortified wine. Fortified wines are made by adding a proportion of grape spirit, or brandy, to the wine at some point during the production process. Port is arguably the greatest of all fortified wines and its paramount expression, Vintage Port, ranks alongside the finest produce of Bordeaux or Burgundy as one of the great iconic wines of the world.

In the case of Port, the addition of the brandy takes place before the wine has finished fermenting. This means that the wine retains some of the natural sweetness of the grape, making it rich, round and smooth on the palate.

One of the fascinating aspects of Port wine is its variety of different styles, each with its own characteristic flavours, from the intense berry fruit flavours of a Reserve or a Late Bottled Vintage to the rich mellowness of an Aged Tawny or the sublime complexity of a Vintage Port.

About Quinta do Noval

Quinta do Noval is one of the great Port houses. Not only does Noval produce the most famous Vintage Port of them all, the legendary ‘Nacional’, it was also the creator of the “Late Bottled” style in 1954 and of single vintage Tawnies (Colheita) in 1954. It is also the only big name producer whose top wines are exclusively single vineyard (i.e. “Quinta”). Think of the difference between a Burgundy domaine and a Burgundy negociant to get an idea of what this means. The Vintage Ports of Quinta do Noval (including Nacional) have always been from the same vineyard. The quality of all Quinta do Noval’s wines has gone through the roof since the early 1990’s when Englishman Christian Seely was put in charge. Many changes occurred, however none have affected the production methods of Noval’s estate-produced Ports that continue to be hand picked from the ancient terraces, foot crushed and fermented in stone lagares (which Noval believes is still the best way to produce quality Port). Today, Noval’s vintage and Colheita Ports (vintage-dated Tawnies) are all made exclusively from estate-grown grapes. This contrasts radically with all of the other big names of the region who buy fruit to blend to a house style. A high percentage of the blends for Noval’s LBV, LB (vintage character) and Old Tawnies – 10, 20 and over 40 Years Old – also come from the estate.

Since the ’94 vintage, the first under Christian Seely, the Quinta do Noval Vintage Ports have always been rated amongst the best of the region, often rivalling Nacional in blind tastings. As both Robert Parker and James Suckling have noted, the Quinta do Noval 1994 Vintage Port was the best VP from the domaine for decades and each VP release since then has been outstanding. Meanwhile the Tawnies and the Late Bottle Vintage are now leaders of their respective categories. The Quinta do Noval Silval Vintage Ports (often containing the declassified Nacional and Quinta VP’s in undeclared vintages like 2005) today offer wonderful value for money.

Although most famous for its Ports, the Quinta do Noval estate is far from a mono-culture: it also produces world class red and white table wines, vegetables, herbs, olives, olive oil, oranges, figs, clementines, walnuts and pigs. We ship the wines, ports and olive oils.
In an interesting side bar reflecting Quinta do Noval’s standing in the world of wine and beyond, US President Barack Obama was possibly the first person to receive an allocation of 2008 Quinta do Noval Vintage (which we offer here!) when he was presented with a single bottle by Portuguese President Cavaco Silva at the 2008 NATO summit (2008 being the year when the US President took office). In return, President Cavaco Silva received a copy of the very first treaty signed between Portugal and the United States – you work out who got the best gift!

Drinking Vintage Port

🍷DECANTING – Vintage Port forms a natural deposit in the bottle and should be decanted. Stand the bottle upright a few hours before decanting to allow the sediment to fall to the bottom of the bottle.

🌡SERVING TEMPERATURE – Serve at 16ºC to 18ºC. Vintage Port is best drunk one to two days after opening.

🍑🧀PAIRING SUGGESTIONS – Walnuts, blue veined and other richly flavoured cheeses are excellent accompaniments to Vintage Port; so too are dried fruits such as apricots or figs.

⏰HOW WILL IT KEEP AFTER OPENNING – Once the cork is popped

The 2020 Vintage at Quinta do Noval

2020 was a hot and dry year, with a prolonged ripening period throughout the summer that led to an early harvest, as the grapes became fully ripe by early September. The resulting wines are extremely rich and powerful, voluminous, sensual, with great density. Tannic structure is immense, but with remarkable finesse.

The Quinta do Noval Vintage is an unusually powerful and rich style for Quinta do Noval, but nevertheless retains the purity and freshness of Pinhão valley fruit that are typical of Noval wines. As usual, we made a strict selection of the best lots of wine from different parcels throughout the estate, with this year three different lots of wine from the Pinhão Valley and one from the Roncão valley making up the blend.

Harvest was very short, from 1st to 22nd September, which is most unusual for Noval where normally the diversity of varieties, exposures and altitudes results in picking times ranging over a longer period. In 2020 the time to choose the right moment to pick each parcel was very short and the capacity of our three different lagar wineries was used to the full. The resulting wines are pure and aromatic, with remarkable density. We chose to allow slightly higher residual sugars than usual this year, and the result is a harmony and richness that is quite particular to this wonderful year at Quinta do Noval.

Where in the World is Quinta do Noval?