Chris Doty wrote:mosesbotbol wrote:
Well, how many times have you had NN '67? I've only had it once and it sure performed. There are a few on this site that had it along with me. A 40 year old port that needs 24 hour decanting is pretty special.
All vintages of Nacional I have had (11), I have only had once. The 67 and 63 I had at Berrys, from the cellars of Noval, with the tasting MC'd by Christian Seely, so I trust they were in immaculate shape, and served with all due attention and care. I actually asked if they were representative, and he said he believed that they were.
I'd be more than happy to try them again, but for the ~2K that they were listed at Berry's for, I'd rather take a few cases of the 1970 Dow, the 1980 Graham, the 1985 Fonseca, and the 1994 Vesuvio
I've been catching up on old threads over the last few days and read the discussion on Nacional with some considerable interest. I wrote a guest corner article for Roy back in 2008 on what I considred to be the 10 finest vintage ports I had drunk up to that point. In that top 10, I had 3 different vintages of Nacional (2003, 1994 and 1963). The first time I tried the 1963 Nacional it was served blind and I was just blown away; it had such a concentration of fruit and multiplicity of layers of flavour. It remains the only port which I have scored at 100 points. I've tried a number of different Nacional vintages (including the 1931 at a tasting organised by Linden Wilkie's Fine Wine Experience; but I was not impressed) many of which I have found to be average in quality and weaker than good examples of port from the same vintage from other shippers.
However, the best port I have ever had remains the 1963 Nacional. (My top 10, from 10 to 1, was Fonseca 1963, Vesuvio 1994, Croft 1945, Gould Campbell 1977, Nacional 2003, Noval 1997, Morgan 1945, Croft 1927, Nacional 1994 and Nacional 1963.)
But then there is also the debate about the price of Nacional compared to other port and the value for money issue. In my mind, there is definitely a label premium for Nacional wines. They are in very limited supply, not released as frequently as the regular Noval and have a romanticism attached to them which all combine to make them desirable and collectible ports. This allows a significant premium to be attached to the selling price of the bottles. For example, Fonseca 1963 sells in the UK today for £130.80 while Nacional 1963 sells for £1,650. Which would you rather have - 12 bottles of Fonseca 1963 or 1 bottle of Nacional 1963?
And that's a personal preference to which your answer may well change overtime. If you're at an early stage of building a cellar and have only a handful of bottles, you may well prefer the case of Fonseca 1963. On the other hand, if you've already got 2 cases of Fonseca 1963 and another 1,000 bottles in the cellar then you might feel that one bottle of Nacional is worth the cost. It gets to be an even more interesting question if we look at ports from the 1980s, when Noval was going through a bad patch and the Nacional wines were also below par. Warre 1983 @ £50 or Nacional 1982 @ £300?
And I guess the answer is that we are all looking to build balanced cellars, cellars which will provide us with decent drinking now and in the future. Some may feel that no Nacional needs to be included in a balanced cellar, some may feel that a handful are worth having and others may love the challenge of collecting and be actively seeking to acquire as many different vintages of Nacional as they can. I hope that any bottle of Nacional that I have or may acquire is opened and drunk in due course - I only buy port to drink it, not to collect it and show it to people...that's what I use my collection of empty bottles for!
Top Ports in 2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
2025: Quevedo 1972 Colheita, b.2024. Just as good as Niepoort 1900!
- can we borrow some of Roy's? 
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