1960 Vintage Port

According to Taylor Fladgate's own harvest records, 1960 saw good rainfall throughout the year with no drought conditions. The harvest began on 19th September under warm, fine weather, but conditions then turned dull, rainy, and cool. Despite the challenging finish to the harvest, the wines produced were elegant and flavourful, demonstrating the Douro's capacity to produce outstanding Port even in variable harvesting conditions. The vintage sits at the start of a celebrated run that continued with the legendary 1963 and the powerful 1966.

• Good rainfall throughout 1960 with no drought, according to Taylor Fladgate's harvest records
• Harvest commenced 19th September; conditions began warm and fine before turning dull, rainy, and cool
• Wines from 1960 described as elegant and flavourful by the Symington Family Estates vintage record
• Preceded the benchmark 1963 vintage, with 1960 forming part of a strong run of 1960s declarations alongside 1963 and 1966

The 1960 vintage was generally declared, with all the major Port houses participating except Niepoort. Producers including Taylor Fladgate, Graham's, Dow's, Warre's, Croft, Fonseca, and Quinta do Noval all bottled Vintage Ports from this harvest. Each declaration is made independently by individual shippers who assess whether their wines meet the standard for Vintage Port, with no trade-wide or regulatory mandate to declare. The breadth of the 1960 declaration reflects genuine confidence in the quality across the major lodges.

• All major houses declared 1960 except Niepoort, making it a near-universal general declaration
• Houses declaring included Taylor Fladgate, Graham's, Dow's, Warre's, Croft, Fonseca, and Quinta do Noval
• Each shipper decides independently whether to declare; no centralized authority mandates or prohibits a declaration
• Declarations are reviewed by the IVDP, the regulatory body for Port, which ratifies and approves the bottling

Quinta do Noval Nacional is one of the most celebrated and rarest wines in the world of Port. It is produced from a 2.5-hectare plot of ungrafted vines at the heart of the Quinta do Noval estate, planted from 1925 onwards. The precise origin of the Nacional vineyard remains unknown, as most of Noval's records were destroyed in a catastrophic fire that swept through the house's Vila Nova de Gaia headquarters in 1981. The estate was acquired by AXA Millesimes in May 1993, with Christian Seely appointed as managing director in October of that year. In declared years, only 200 to 300 cases of Nacional are produced.

• Produced from a 2.5-hectare plot of ungrafted vines at the heart of the Quinta do Noval estate
• The first Nacional vines were planted in 1925; the vineyard history is incompletely documented due to the 1981 fire at Noval's Gaia headquarters
• Only 200 to 300 cases produced in a declared year, a tiny fraction of Noval's total vintage Port output of 1,200 to 5,000 cases
• Quinta do Noval was sold to AXA Millesimes in May 1993; Christian Seely appointed managing director in October 1993

At more than 65 years of age, the 1960 vintage has undergone profound evolution in bottle. The best examples, those with impeccable provenance and cold, stable storage, have settled into fully mature expressions offering the kind of secondary complexity only achieved through extended bottle age. Dow's 1960, for instance, is described as having softened into extraordinary elegance while retaining the deep, brooding house character. Warre's 1960 is noted for exceptional finesse and aromatic evolution of dried red fruits, cedar, tobacco, and warm spice. Surviving bottles require careful handling, confident decanting, and realistic expectations of bottle variation.

• Wines are now more than 65 years old and fully mature; secondary and tertiary aromatics dominate in well-stored examples
• Dow's 1960 described as a mature tawny-garnet with dried fig, orange peel, cedar, tobacco, and caramelised nuts
• Warre's 1960 noted for dried red fruits, cherry liqueur, fig, rose petal, cedar, and tobacco on an evolved bouquet
• Provenance and storage history are critical at this age; bottle variation between examples is expected and should be anticipated

The decision to declare a Vintage Port lies with each individual producer or shipper, every year, without any joint, trade-wide, or regulatory mandate. The IVDP assesses samples of the wine, ratifies the declaration, and approves bottling and sale as Vintage Port. The Vintage Port must be bottled after a minimum of two years aging in cask, a regulation established by the IVDP in the 1950s. Declarations traditionally occur approximately three times per decade. The 1960 declaration preceded the pivotal 1963 vintage, which is widely considered one of the greatest Vintage Port years of the twentieth century and the benchmark against which others are compared.

• Each shipper declares independently; the IVDP then ratifies and approves the declaration and bottling
• Vintage Port must be bottled after a minimum of two years in cask, per IVDP regulations established in the 1950s
• Declarations occur approximately three times per decade on average; 1960 was followed in the decade by 1963 and 1966
• 1963 is the landmark vintage of the era, declared by all major houses and widely used as a reference point for post-war Vintage Port

The 1960 vintage holds a respected place in the canon of classic mid-century Vintage Port. It is rated a five-star vintage by The Vintage Port Shop, sharing that distinction with only eleven other vintages since 1900, including 1927, 1945, 1948, 1955, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1977, 1994, and 2011. Bottles at this age demand careful attention to provenance; fill levels, label condition, and storage history all affect likely quality. The 1960 Nacional from Quinta do Noval, while less documented than some later Nacionals, represents a remarkable survival from one of the landmark eras of this legendary wine.

• Rated a five-star vintage by The Vintage Port Shop, one of only twelve five-star vintages since 1900
• Bottles are increasingly rare; fill levels and storage documentation are essential considerations for buyers
• The 1960 sits between the well-regarded 1958 and the legendary 1963 in the chronology of post-war declarations
• Quinta do Noval Nacional from 1960 is among the rarest and most sought-after expressions of this already limited wine