1970 | Quinta do Noval | Nacional Vintage

Introduction

Dessert Wine: 1970 | Quinta do Noval | Nacional Vintage

So concentrated it is all tight and closed up even though you can see it is rich and packed with fine black fruit.

Order from the Largest & Most Trusted Premium Spirits Marketplace!

Featured in

• ROLLING STONE
• MEN’S JOURNAL
• US WEEKLY

NOTICE: Many other small liquor store sites may end up cancelling your order due to the high demand, unavailability or inaccurate inventory counts. We have partnerships consisting of a large network of licensed retailers from within the United States, Europe and across the world ensuring orders are fulfilled.

Producer: Quinta do Noval

Ratings: WA | 96 JR | 98

Vintage: 1970

Size: 750ml

ABV: 21%

Varietal: Port Blend Red

Country/Region: Portugal, Douro

Opening up to bergamot and tea leaf. So concentrated it is all tight and closed up even though you can see it is rich and packed with fine black fruit.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 1970 Nacional remains a young, unevolved wine, as well as the lightest and least intense of the 1970, 1963 and 1962. That is not to suggest it is a wimpish wine as it is a powerful vintage port, but it is unbelievably graceful, youthful, and complex. The huge nose of licorice, smoke, jammy black-cherry and cassis fruit is followed by a wine of seamless components, all super-packed with gorgeously pure fruit, yet the wine is not heavy or overbearing. There is a real sense of elegance to this spectacular, young Quinta do Noval Nacional.

• Jancis Robinson: Black core with wide purple rim. Less exuberant than the Noval at the moment, less sweet-smelling and scented but it has immediate elegance and purity, almost subtle in this context. Opening up to bergamot and tea leaf. So concentrated it is all tight and closed up even though you can see it is rich and packed with fine black fruit. Spicy, tangy and mouth-watering. Outstanding length and promise.

Producer Information

Quinta do Noval, established in 1715, is one of the only Port houses to be located in the heart of the Douro Valley of Portugal. It is perhaps best known for its Nacional Vintage Ports, the 1963 is considered by many critics to be the greatest Port ever made. Quinta do Noval is also one of the only houses that is named after its most famed vineyard, in this case the Quinta do Noval. The majority of the vineyards at the quinta are planted with the noble varieties of the Douro: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Cao. These grapes do well on the mix of schist and clay soil types found here. There was a large scale replanting of the vineyards in 1994, and each plot was planted with a variety that best suited that soil, altitude and exposition. Historically, the vineyards had been planted in blended plots; however this practice is dying out in the Douro, as the plantings become more specific to individual terroir. In the heart of the Quinta do Noval vineyard is a small plot of ungrafted vines that were lucky enough to avoid the devastation of phylloxera in the 19th Century. These grapes are used in the Nacional wines. Alongside the production of fine Ruby and Tawny ports, the house also produces an unfortified style of Douro wine, as well as the newest introduction, the Noval Black, a Port that is made to be drunk young and fresh, without age or decanting. Since 1993, the managing director has been Chris Seely who is also in charge of a host of vineyards within Europe, as part of the AXA Millesimes group. This investment group also owns estates such as Chteau Pichon-Longueville, Chteau Pibran as well as Disznko in Hungary.