For The Love Of Port

This bottle is part of a series of older Niepoort vintages we're tasting (1963, 1966, 1970, 1975, 1977). Only the 1963 has been tasted so far. We planned to open the 1966 this evening, but since StevieCage had to cancel last minute, and he already tasted the 1970, we decided on this one.

Decanted about 2 hours before drinking. Very clear colour, still quite dark with some orange and rusty tones in it.

Delicate nose with dried fruit, leather, tobacco and smoky notes. Somewhat alcoholic but certainly not off-putting. Later on the nose gains freshness with aniseed and light berry fruit.

On the palate it is much bigger than expected from the nose. Very silky and creamy with prunes, roses, coffee and a spicy touch of red chili peppers. With time in the glass it gains fresh (dark) fruit. Creamy finish, with rose hip, coffee, toffee and a hint of licorice.

This is great for drinking now, and the decanter was finished pretty soon between the three of us. It shows lots of aged characteristics, but the port seemed to get more youthful with more time in the decanter, also it gained in darker fruit. It had a great structure, but in comparison, the 1963 seemed to be a bit better balanced.

A great port, just misses a tiny something to be classic. I don't mind, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 94 points.

I am curious about the type of bottle for the 1970 Niepoort you tried. Was it a short fat bottle or a standard port bottle? I have heard both types are on the market for this vintage. Can anybody confirm this?

I last had the 1970 Niepoort ages ago and it was as huge as the 1970 Taylor or Fonseca. Perhaps the port needed more time to open up to be a classic as you indicated the nose and color gaining freshness with time. Niepoort seems to need quite a bit of time in the decanter to be best. But I understand how fast a decanter can finish, it can be hard to keep away from it!

Would love to hear tasting notes from others on this port. I'm a big fan of the 1970 vintage, so am eager to know more about the Niepoort which is often great. If I had some I would crack it to see.

Shawn,

Yes the 1970 Niepoort was bottled in both the regular style and the short fat one you described. The short fat one was done as a throw back to the old style of port bottles from the turn of the century (or around that time anyways). I've never seen any of the short fat ones for sale, although I know Niepoort still has some in their cellars.

OTOH, I have ONLY seen the short and fat bottlings of 1970 and consumed either 5 or 6 of them over the years. I have one left in the cellar that has a massive mushroom shaped capsule. I also have one empty bottle that I had with Dirk, my brother and Christophe Roumier, on my wall-of-empties. Andy, how do you know that there are regular shaped 1970s?

BTW, I am a big fan of this particular Niepoort and have had it possibly more than any other except 2000.

I was not present when Ronnie opened this VP, but I do know it was a short and fat bottle. I like this Niepoort a lot as well; when I tasted it in August from a similar bottle I rated it 95 points.

Roy, check this link for a picture of the "orther" bottling. Both types are Porto-bottled, BTW.

Perhaps some more time in the decanter would have given it that little bit extra. Doesn't matter, it was great.

This was from the short, 'old-fashioned' bottle. I'll upload a picture when I have the time.

Thanks Steven, I had never seen the '70 in that format before. Interesting that both were done ex-cellars. I wonder why they were bottled in both shapes?

Roy,
Ohh shoot, I am having brain fade this morning and forgot our lovely hosts name I saw them in their cellars and asked about them, I was told they bottled both regular and the fat ones. Interesting in that I only saw (and held) the short fat one in their cellars. I didn't see any of the regular sized bottles of '70.

There was no big reason for the fat one. What I was told was the fat one was done as a tribute to the old style bottle that is no longer used. Just that Niepoort excentricy that I love!

According to Dirk, there was no apparent reason, other than that his father liked to do things differently sometimes.

This reminds me of that old school boy question - "why does a dog lick his balls? -......because he can! "

I hope Niepoort continue to do things just because they can 8)

Derek

And I hope there are sufficient people around to keep you away from the local dogs.

Derek Turnbull wrote:because he can!

Exactly the reason why I love the Niepoort wines. Dirk is realy an Artisan. He doesn't care if Parker or the market will like his wines or what possible score he will receive. He's making the wines that he loves. Period. I love them too!

-Dave-

As I promised pictures, let's see if this works:

Clearly not.

Then just click here for the pictures.

Can anybody give me a hint on how to insert pictures into a message?

You did the right thing with the tools on the forum, but for this to work the image has to be the only thing on the webpage you are referencing. And you should remove the parameters in the URL after the jpg. Parameters are the "?v=0", the tag doesn't like it.

Thanks Fred! I've edited my original post. You can see, BTW that the two bottles are different. The bottle we drank has the letters 'printed' on the bottle, while on the full bottle the letters are painted. Needless to say, I like the bottle on the left better.

Here is my tasting note in this beauty of Port.

Quite young in color, starting to fade to garnet on the edge. Great nose of figs, tobaco and fresh field berries. The palate is full of young berry fruits followed by a long finish of rasberries, figs and cinnamon. Perfectly balance and intense, I really enjoyed this Port! 19/20