Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage 1996 Port
€ 1,200.00
| Producer | Quinta do Noval |
| Region | Douro |
| Grapes | Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cão |
| 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 | 97/100 Jamie Goode 96/100 Falstaff |
Nacional 1996: vivid, plummy and spicy, with impressive intensity.
Tasting note
Deep-coloured and concentrated, with an amazingly vivid nose of plums and spice. Dark, earthy, savoury notes, firm tannins and amazing intensity, with lovely structure (after Jamie Goode).
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.
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
97/100 Jamie Goode
96/100 Falstaff | Tasted: Dec 2014