WE
100pts
Wine Enthusiast
#7 in Top 100 Cellar Selections, 2025. Even better than the impressive 2021 Nacional, this is a magnificent Port. It comes from a small parcel of ungrafted vines on the Noval estate. Beautifully perfumed, ripe with sweetness balancing the massive structure, the wine is set to age for decades. It is a Port to treasure. Drink at the earliest from 2035. (Cellar Selection)
The 2022 Vintage Port Nacional was produced with grapes from ungrafted vines, not pre-phylloxera, as you might read elsewhere, as these are relatively young vines from two vineyards planted with a field blend of Touriga Francesa, Tinto Cão, Touriga Nacional, Sousão (some 15% in the field blend) and Tinta Roriz. It's produced in exactly the same way as the other Vintage Port, in granite lagars and aged in old casks for 18 months. It has 19.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.67 and 86 grams of sugar, quite similar parameters to the regular Vintage Port from the same vintage, and it's quite low in sugar compared with other years. But the wine is more backward, with more detail, and it's more serious, with lots of complexity. The tannins and the sweetness compensate each other; there's a lot of depth, concentration and power but in a very harmonious way. I think this has better balance and more elegance than other recent vintages. It opens slowly in the glass to give classical notes of candied violets and rockrose and a lactic hint. It should age effortlessly for 50 years. 1,920 bottles were filled in May 2024.
With only 2,400 bottles made for the world, this is one of the rarest Ports, produced from a small plot of vines 100 years old and older growing on their own roots in a section of the Noval estate. Such finesse and elegance at first, then power and structure as the wine fills the palate with blackberry syrup, creme de cassis and cocoa. Long, lacy finish lasts for minutes. Best from 2037.
The 2022 Nagional Vintage Port comes from the usual field blend planted on their own roots in the 1920s. The fruit was trodden by foot in concrete lagares and aged for 18 months in oak and 2,500-liter chestnut vats. This has a broader, deeper bouquet than the regular Noval fortified, black plum and licorice, blueberry and Christmas cake, all delivered with fabulous delineation and freshness. The palate is stunning: lovely balance and tangible intensity, yet it is so light-footed and gentle in terms of grip with a spicier, more peppery finish than the Quinta do Noval. It's very long on the finish. This is a Nacional that will age gracefully over decades. Just 167 cases were produced
Dense and dark, with a burly edge as walnut husk, singed alder and warm earth accents peek out from a core of steeped black currant and blackberry reduction flavors. The finish leans to the frankly dry side, with espresso crema, licorice root, bay leaf, baker's chocolate and menthol accents adding to the impressive range and detail. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Cão, Sousão and Tinta Roriz. Best from 2040 through 2065. From Portugal.
Winery Notes
The word “Nacional” refers to the fact that the vines are Portuguese vines growing in Portuguese soil with no foreign root stock and are therefore “attached to the soil of the Nation.” When Noval’s vineyards were devastated by phylloxera in the late 19th century, the owner decided to replant a tiny parcel of the vineyard with ungrafted vines. These 6 acres of Nacional vines lie in an area indistinguishable from and surrounded by the other Noval vines.
Studied thoroughly by agronomists and scientists, the survival of the tiny parcel of legendary ungrafted vines is a mystery and the National is a unique and extraordinary phenomenon that does not necessarily follow the same rhythm as the rest of the Quinta do Noval. In some years a great Nacional is produced when Noval does not even declare the Quinta do Noval Vintage. In others, Quinta do Noval makes a great Vintage Port but the Nacional does not perform.
Tasting a bottle from the minute production of Nacional is every port lover’s fantasy and Nacional is every port lover’s fantasy and this great wine is a source of pride to the people of Portugal and at its best the finest expression of the extraordinary terroir of Quinta do Noval.
Up close, it becomes apparent that the Nacional vines are slightly less vigorous, with smaller trunks and less foliage, and with leaves that are slightly less vibrant green. The berries are smaller, giving a higher ratio of skin to juice. The grapes are picked in one day and trodden in only the smallest lagares but otherwise are treated with the same meticulous care as the other Quinta do Noval wines.
