Quinta do Noval Port: A look back in time

Richard Mayson recently tasted a range of Noval's Ports, including several vintages of the renowned Nacional, and pre-war colheitas...

Quinta do Noval is probably the most famous Port producer in the Douro. It occupies a particularly prominent site, stacked up over the Pinhão valley, and its immaculate painted terraces very visible from a number of other estates.

Long before the rise of the single-quinta in the 1960s and ‘70s, the estate stood out for being both a Port house and a quinta, first recorded as the latter in 1715.

Scroll down to see Richard’s Quinta do Noval tasting notes & scores from this tasting

Any wine labelled ‘Quinta do Noval’ is made from grapes grown at the property, whereas any wine labelled simply ‘Noval’ will have been made from at least a portion of grapes that have been bought in.

When it comes to vintage Port, the estate behaves as a single-quinta, declaring any year when they have an outstanding wine. Quantities may vary (1,000–6,000 cases being the norm), but between 2011 and 2016 Quinta do Noval has declared a vintage in every year.

A new start

Like every property with a long history, Noval has had its ups and downs. In the 1970s and 1980s, a time when a number of leading Port shippers regularly underperformed, Noval was on a downward trajectory. The estate was rescued in 1993 when it was bought by AXA Millésimes, and Christian Seely was put in overall charge.

Between 1994 and 1999, 100ha of vineyard were replanted, accompanied by plenty of fine tuning in the adega.

This was the responsibility of technical director António Agrellos, who retired at the end of 2017 after working quietly in the background at Noval for 24 years.

Agrellos was replaced by another Agrellos; his nephew, Carlos, who I have known for a number of years for his work at Quinta do Côtto, with the Symingtons and with cork producer Amorim. He also has his own wine producing property in the Douro, Quinta do Espinhal.

The wines below were shown as a tribute to António Agrellos, a softly spoken individual who agreed to do the job provided he didn’t have to show his face too much.

Nacional

At the heart of the estate, located just above the main drive to the house is a fabled 1.6ha plot of ungrafted vines. This vineyard ‘beats to a different drum’, in the words of Christian Seely.

From the top of the quinta, depending on the time of year, it’s easy to make out the Nacional vines because they show much less vigour than the surrounding vineyard. This is reflected in the yield which, at 15hl/ha, is about half that of the rest of the estate.

The drum beats differently when it comes to declared vintages, too, with years like 1996, 1999 and 2001 having been released when Quinta do Noval did not otherwise make a declaration.

In the years between 1994 and 2016, Quinta do Noval made 14 vintage declarations whereas Quinta do Noval Nacional was declared 10 times.

An ongoing mystery surrounds the 2007 Nacional which was never declared: could it be that there is a Nacional colheita waiting in the wings?

Colheita

This tasting concluded with a range of Quinta do Noval’s colheitas which, rather than being a different drum beat, belong to a completely different section of the orchestra.

Having been aged in the Douro – albeit in temperature-controlled conditions – these wines take on a suave, sometimes caramelised, occasionally maderised character from prolonged ageing in pipes.

All the colheitas tasted below were bottled in 2018, ready to drink and should ideally be opened within a year or two. But there are more of these wines in stock and it will be interesting to see how they evolve when it comes to future bottlings, particularly the rather youthful 2003. There is just one pipe remaining of the venerable 1937.

The Ports at this tasting all originated from the estate.

Quinta do Noval: Vintage by vintage

Starting with the 2016s…

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