For The Love Of Port

from a 375m. This wasn't so much different than others I've posted about from this case. However thankfully this one had far less VA showing which allowed more of the fruit to shine...and the tannins, acid, and other things that make this a wonderful bottle when not tainted by VA.
91 points

Great to hear that your bottle was good!

Woo hoo, finally. I can't wait until you have another one that is shows NO signs of any flaw.

Love to see what you'd score a near-perfect bottle.

I wish but so far almost all have been flawed in some way. One of these days I hope.


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I have had the Niepoort VT 1997 several times including one bottle this week. Unfortunately this bottle had the same fault as the others - it smelled and tasted like "glue" at the party at this years Confraria in June in Porto we had 17-19 VT 1997 - including the Niepoort- and at that time it was Perfect My conclusion is - it's a high risk bottle - but when it's good it's REALLY good


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True. Sadly In my experience most are not up to par.


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I have 5 in my cellar... we're going out to dinner tonight at a restaurant that doesn't charge corkage on your first bottle (Lot No. 3 in Bellevue, same restaurant group as The Purple Cafe that we frequent regularly), so I'll pull one and see how it goes. It won't get much of a decant, but that might be a good thing.

Opened one last night and it was very nice. Cork was pushed out about 1/4" but hadn't broken the capsule and there were no signs of leakage.

The concensus at the table (and the waiter, with whom we shared a glass) was slight to moderate VA, but not enough to detract from the deliciousness of the Port. 1997 Niepoort really is a fabulous Port if you get a good bottle... it's a shame so many of them have VA levels that bother people.

I'll try to get a separate TN up later.