Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage 1963 Port
€ 5,900.00
| Producer | Quinta do Noval |
| Region | Douro |
| Grapes | Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, Sousão |
| Ageing | 18 months in wooden casks |
| Alcohol | 19.5%vol |
| Serving | 12-15°C, decant before serving Keeps 2 days at most once opened |
| Scores | 99/100 Robert Parker 19,5/20 Jancis Robinson |
Nacional 1963: a legend, ranked by Robert Parker with 1931 among the greatest Ports ever made.
Tasting note
A magical wine, made only every few years and in tiny quantities. Super-concentrated and dark in colour, with salty and spicy notes alongside plums and blackberries. Very fine and elegant, a little reserved, with freshness, dark fruit, amazing structure and earthy, spicy notes.
The story
‘Nacional’ refers to Portuguese vines on Portuguese soil, with no foreign rootstock. When phylloxera destroyed most European vineyards in the late 19th century, this plot at Noval survived on its own roots. A Nacional Vintage Port is made only in the best years, each time just a few hundred cases: one of the rarest and most sought-after Ports in the world.
Nacional 1963 is not made from Touriga Nacional alone, as the name might suggest, but from several of the Douro’s noblest grapes: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão and Sousão.
The grapes are foot-trodden in the quinta’s stone lagares and macerate during fermentation for optimal extraction. The wine ages for eighteen months in wooden casks in the quinta’s air-conditioned cellars in the Douro before bottling.
Food pairing
A delicious digestif, also with rich aged cheeses, dark chocolate or chocolate mousse.
The producer
Quinta do Noval appears in the land registry as early as 1715 and lies in the Pinhão valley, in the heart of the Douro. In 1894 the Port shipper António José da Silva bought the estate, and his family ran it for almost a century. In 1993 Noval passed to AXA Millésimes, with Christian Seely at the helm, who had most of the vineyards replanted.
Noval’s most famous asset is Nacional: a small plot of ungrafted vines, never touched by phylloxera, right by the house. It yields a Vintage Port only in exceptional years, in tiny quantities. At Noval the grapes are still foot-trodden in stone lagares.
Critics & Awards
99/100 Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Drinking window: 1996-2096. Opaque purple, more like a young Port than a wine of its age. Smoke, cassis, black cherries and pepper, with fruitcake after half an hour. Incredibly concentrated, with extraordinary balance, well-integrated alcohol and tannin, silky and succulent. A legend.
Drinking window: 1996-2096. Opaque purple, more like a young Port than a wine of its age. Smoke, cassis, black cherries and pepper, with fruitcake after half an hour. Incredibly concentrated, with extraordinary balance, well-integrated alcohol and tannin, silky and succulent. A legend.
19,5/20 Jancis Robinson
98/100 Jean-Marc Quarin | Tasted: Nov 2017
98/100 Stephen Tanzer
