Q. do Noval Nacional

From memory, so someone can check to see if I’ve got this right . . . In the late 1980s or early 1990s, my mother in law bought me a copy of the first edition of Parker’s Wine Buying Guide. I come to the section on port and there is a discussion of this unicorn wine that Parker reports that he has heard of but never seen, let alone tasted. He wonders whether it really exists. I made a mental note to try to find some. Fast forward 15 or 20 years and Acker is offering the Rosania Cellar, some of which turned out to be Kurniawan counterfeits. There were two bottles of 1996 Nacional and I took a shot at it. Winner winner chicken dinner.

I opened one and wrote the note that appears at the end of this thread. I have since been able to buy 2 other bottles and almost got a vertical of it from 1963 to present at an auction except some A-Hole SOB outbid the group I put together to buy it and then split it up and resold it. I did, however, go to the warehouse where they were stored before the auction to examine the bottles and the seepage of the 1963 was quite delicious.

After Laurent Gibet mentioned it in his thread, I thought I would start one devoted solely to this wine to get other people’s impressions. I can’t think of any other wine that is hands down, virtually no debate, the best of its class year in and year out except maybe d’Yquem of those that I have had. I once suggested Monfortino to Galloni as being in that group and he responded that Giacosa red label was a competitor. I’ve never had DRC La Romanee or Montrachet, so maybe they would qualify.

Opinions, thoughts, heckling, complaints about how this post is not appropriate for WB because it is not stupid or humorous, whatever.

My tasting note on the 1996 Nacional, with the Parker story omitted. To me 97 points is like Suckling 115. I have never rated a wine higher than 97 points, but my rating scale has shifted a bit, and if I were re-rating this, it would tie with 1970 Monfortino at 99 pts. I forgot to mention that Roy Hirsch was at the dinner and confirmed that he thought it was authentic.

  • 1996 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage Nacional - Portugal, Douro, Porto (3/12/2013)
    Decanted at 9:30 pm the night before into a large open mouthed glass pitcher. Poured back into the bottle at 7 am the next morning. Carefully handled to removed all sediment in the double decant. Opened at the restaurant at 7 pm and drunk at about 9:30. Roy Hirsch gets credit for decanting instructions, which were spot on.

WOW. Absolutely wonderful and a candidate for wine of the decade. Still very primary in flavors but incredibly smooth and sexy with zero rough edges. The flavors are red fruit, cherry and plum, with a tiny bit of undifferentiated spice, hard to pinpoint. Occasional tiny bits of chocolate. No secondary caramel or nuttiness. Lacking complexity only because it is still a baby, but that’s what to expect. My other bottle will have to wait 10-20 years as the flavor profile morphs. Not too sweet, not syrupy in the mouth. Just a smooth, seamless taste experience. . .

This is the first bottle I have ever tasted and it was worth the price of admission. (97 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

I have been lucky enough to taste a few, including the legendary 1963, certainly the finest Port I have ever tasted, and in 2005 still drinking young. But 1964 and 1967 were also stunning wines, but the 1970 was better still. I gather there was a falling off between 1975 and 1994, but I thoroughly enjoyed the 1991, which in the $200 range, was cheap for a Nacional. Never had anything younger, but have a bottle of 1994.

Q. do Noval had issues company-wide in the 1980s and their 1985 “regular” cuvee is supposed to be one of their worst efforts. I got a few bottles as a birth year wine for my nephew and it’s thin but not horrible. I have a bottle of the 1978 that I will open when a good excuse arises. I also have a bottle of the 2000, which maybe I will live long enough to drink.

Comes from a small plot within the larger vineyard covering a couple of terraces. It is right next to the estate’s chicken coop. I once asked if it might be better to get rid of the chickens and increase the size of the plot, but they laughed and said they like their chickens! Unknown why own rooted vines survive there and not elsewhere. People have done soil analysis but haven’t come to any definitive conclusions. The wines are different as well. Some years a regular Noval will be declared, sometimes only the Nacional, sometimes both.
Other estates have followed the lead and are releasing sub plot wines. Grahams “The Stone Terraces” from the Malvados vineyard. Vesuvio’s “Capela,” Croft “Serikos” from the Roeda vineyard, and Taylors Vinha Velha from Vargellas.

Nacional is an absolute treat. The 1963 is one of the greatest wines I have ever had.

We did a Nacional themed dinner a few years back. It is one of the most memorable dinners I have attended.

I’m trying to get to that point, but I need a bottle of the 1963 and every time I try to buy it, someone outbids me. But having licked my thumb after rubbing it on the SoS on the side of a bottle, I suspect the 1963 is one of the great wines of all time. However, some people have argued that the 1963 regular cuvee is just as good. I have had that and it is great, but . . .

My father is vintage ‘31. For his 50th birthday in December, 1981 he my mother took my brother, sister, my wife, and me on a three week cruise from Lauderdale to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal on the newly recommissioned Royal Viking Star. My buddy’s family owned the C&E distributorship in California and he tracked down a bottle of ‘31 Nacional, which we opened on my dad’s birthday somewhere in the Caribbean. It was magical.

The ‘63 Noval is a pleasant Port but nothing more. Not even in my top five 1963s.

This is a unicorn bottle.