The particularity of our

Nacional Vintage Port

« Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port comes from a small plot at the heart of Noval vineyard, planted with ungrafted vines of native grape varieties.

This is a wine that confirms something that is for me a deeply held belief. A wine is great because of the quality of the grapes, the character of the year and because of the place they come from. These things are far more important than anything we may do either in the vineyard or in the winery. We vinify the Nacional in the same way that the other grapes from the rest of the Quinta do Noval vineyard: foot treading in stone lagares. The result is always something very different for the Nacional wine compared to the wines from the rest of the Quinta. The Nacional Vintage Port is what it is because of the grapes and where they come from, not because of anything particular that we may do in the winery. Its terroir forges its greatness. »

Christian Seely

A distinctive personality 

in Noval's vineyard

Always different, and with a distinctive personality, it does not necessarily follow the same rhythm as the rest of the vineyard. In 1996 for example, which was not a declared Vintage year for the rest of the Quinta do Noval vineyard, the Nacional Vintage was outstanding, and we decided to declare it.

There are also years when we declare great Quinta do Noval Vintage Ports, when the Nacional just does not sing, so we do not declare it. 2007 was an example of this.

Standards of exceptional quality

We are the custodians of this great wine's reputation, and this is what drives us in our daily work. Since 1994, we decided to declare our Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port only when the greatness of the wine is indisputable.

Tiny quantities

If the Nacional Vintage is in such great demand, it is partly because of the tiny quantities we produce, only 200 to 250 cases each year of declaration. 

It represents only a small percentage of Quinta do Noval Vintage production (1,200 to 5,000 cases per year of declaration), itself about 10% of Quinta do Noval production in Vintage declaration years.

The world's 

most highly prized port

Owing to this extremely low level of production, the Nacional Vintage is sold only in very small quantity. The bottle of Nacional Vintage which reaches the market from time to time is sold at a very high price, a reflection of the exceptional quality and rarity of this, the world's most highly prized Port.