Douro - Quinta do Noval

Quinta do Noval was owned in 1715 by the Rebello Valente family, who received it from the Marquês do Pombal, the Prime Minister of Portugal. The worldwide catastrophe of phylloxera put an end to the family business and it was taken over in 1884 by António José da Silva. He replanted the vineyards and restored them to their original state. His son-in-law Luiz Vasconcelos Porto played an important role in several innovations. He transformed the narrow terraces into wider, slightly sloping terraces, thus making it possible to work more efficiently. This was also more favorable for the plants and the ripening of both rows of vines, because the back row was no longer in the shade.

It was later owned by the Van Zeller family who had to rebuild everything after the catastrophic fire in 1981. In the end Quinta do Noval was sold in May 1993 to the French insurance company AXA Millésime. The children could not agree on the management of the company. Now Quinta de Noval is owned by the Englishman and Managing Director Christian Seely, married to Maria Cálem, from the porthouse Calém. AXA is a group that already has a series of leading Bordeaux castles in their portfolio.

At the moment the vineyards count 70 hectares, located in Cima Corgo, 2 km from Pinhao. There are officially 6 approved grape varieties for Port: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Cão, Tinta Francesca, and Tinto Rouro. However, Quinta do Noval has also approved the Sousão grape. Of course, all grapes are harvested by hand. All vineyards of Quinta do Noval are classified A. Noval also owns a plot with about 6000 vines that are still grafted on sticks from before the phylloxera epidemic. That is, not on American rootstock, but still on the original Portuguese vines. This vineyard is only planted with Touriga Nacional grapes, and is simply called 'Nacional'. Only in the best years of this vineyard port is made, the Quinta do Noval Nacional port, which is considered the most special, rare and sought after port in the world. Noval also introduced the first stenciled bottles and in 1958 were they the first house which introduced a Late Bottled Vintage.

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