The Wine Advocate released Neal Martin’s article on and reviews of 2011 Vintage Port, with some incredible comments on Quinta do Noval. Martin writes a whole section on Nacional in his introduction, stating:
“The pinnacle of the 2011 Vintage Ports might well turn out to be Quinta do Noval Naçional – apologies for being somewhat predictable. Speaking to Christian Seely, he told me that he knew that this would be the first simultaneous declaration of both Noval and Naçional since 2003 when they were doing the blending in January. Seely often describes the vines at Naçional as “marching to their own tune” compared to the rest of the Noval vineyard. So it takes a special growing season to align them together as it happened in 2011.
Let me tell you how I tasted the Quinta do Noval Naçional 2011. At Vintners Hall, I had pulled up a chair behind the table where the samples were lined up so that I would not be disturbed. I grabbed what I thought was the regular Quinta do Noval since I was unaware that the Naçional had been declared at that point. I was gob-smacked (literally) by its power and intensity, which seemed to be on another level, overwhelmed by the gut feeling that this represented the peak of Vintage Port like the Taylor’s ’48 or the Naçional ’63, to name but two fabled Ports. It was after composing my eulogy that I glanced at the label that read “Naçional” and noticed the regular Noval on the adjacent table. “That would explain it,” I said to myself. “No bloody wonder.” To read the whole article click here.
