QUINTA DO NOVAL

In the world of port wine, the more than 300-year-old Quinta do Noval is arguably the greatest house of all. State-of-the-art facilities allow Noval to produce wines of incredible complexity and finesse, most of the production coming from their own single vineyard located in Pinhão, at the heart of the Douro Valley. In its middle lies the tiny, cherished plot planted with ungrafted vines that are 100% Portuguese rootstock, untouched by phylloxera, from which the most famous port in the world, the legendary Nacional, is made.

Aside from their reputation as an iconic port producer, in recent years Noval have put more emphasis on still wine production, using indigenous varieties. The deliciously spicy and seductive red blend, Cedro do Noval, is made up of Touriga Nacional, Syrah, Touriga Francesa & Tinto Cão. Made solely from indigenous varieties, the Douro DOC Reserva is complex and structured, and demonstrates that the Douro can produce some very fine wine indeed.

ANTÓNIO AGRELLOS

A winemaker who once dreamt of becoming an architect, António Agrellos was born in Porto and has lived there ever since. However, architecture ended up taking second place to five generations of a family preoccupation with port winemaking. Acquiring the basics of winemaking and viticultural skills in Bordeaux, António returned to Portugal where he worked with two of Portugal’s greatest ever port masters, Frederico van Zeller and Fernando Nicolau de Almeida. Eventually, he was offered the winemaking role at Quinta do Noval, which at the time had seen off its glory days. When in the 1990s, AXA’s Chrisian Seely took over the company reins, António Agrellos secured the ability to oversee the renewal of the vineyard, reclaiming its reputation as one of the finest vineyards in the Douro. Since becoming the Wine Director, António Agrellos has achieved 100 points at Wine Spectator for Noval’s vintage ports on four separate occasions.