2005 Niepoort LBV Port

[Glenn E.]

Purchased by the glass as the Purple Cafe in Kirkland for our anniversary dinner. I requested a white wine glass because in the past they've served me Port in a chimney-style cordial.

2005 Niepoort LBV

Color: typically poor restaurant lighting, but it did look rich, purple, and dark. It didn't look opaque, but it was hard to tell.
Nose: a bit spirity, backed up by a general fruitiness. It smelled like a young (but not baby) VP.
Palate: rich, medium sweet, full bodied. Lots of dark black cherries. Warm and welcoming in the mouth.
Finish: a clear bitter note throughout, which detracted from the overall impression. Otherwise warm, somewhat fruity, and of a good but not great length.

Score: 90 points. With a better finish it might have reached 92. Excellent as-is, but just barely because of the finish.

[Roy Hersh]

Very nice note Glenn. Did you know how long the bottle had been open? What was purple charging BTG?

[Glenn E.]

Sorry, I didn't ask how long it had been open. It seemed fresh enough to me at the time so I didn't see the need to ask.

$9 per glass. Sadly I didn't seem to get a larger pour in the white wine glass and their pours are pretty small, so $9 seemed a bit high to me. They claim it's a 3oz pour, but if 8 of those servings makes a bottle then I'm Bill Gates. I'm seriously tempted to take some sort of measuring device with me next time just to see how small their pours actually are. I'd guess they're closer to 2oz than 3oz.