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.