For John M. Looking forward to sharing! AP

Bom Dia John, um selecao pequena para um comeco



QUINTA DO NOVAL produces ports called Colheitas, single vintage Tawny ports which are kept in barrels until the winery is ready to sell them. They are usually 100% from the vintage shown on the bottle. These ports are normally reasonably priced and sometimes in my league. My problem is once I purchase I have to decide when to open and there is the rub. In the wine advocate they are described as follows.The 1937 Colheita was superb, with its high alcohol amazingly well-covered by the wine's flesh and richness. The medium amber color was representative of its age. The huge nose of orange marmalade, jammy cherries, tobacco, smoke, and white chocolate was followed by a dense, rich, drier style of single vintage tawny that was full-bodied, rich, and spicy. The 1937 is assumed to be the best of the Quinta do Noval line of Colheitas.





Next, the Garraferia. Aged in large vats for an average of 6 years then transfered to glass containers called Demijohns, glass containers that are around 11 liters in volume and when ready it is tranfered to 750ml bottles and can still age a bit further in these .They will normally have printed on them, year of harvest, year it was bottled,( put in demijons), and year it was decanted, (put in 750 ml bottles). Not reasonably priced, I am making excuses to purchase a bottle that I found bargin priced. Here is the Garraferria process described by Mr Jose Rodrigo, a son of a Neipoort Cellar Master.
Niepoort is the only shipper who own the 11 litre Demijons in which this wine is aged. They have approximately 4,000 demijons, almost all of which are filled with wine, and are believed to have been purchased from a French perfume importer in the early 20th Century.
The wines that are used to make Garrafeira are of Vintage quality when they are selected to enter this unusual wine ageing process.
Niepoort has only produced ( that might be "released") 7 Garrafeira vintages, the earliest of which was 1931. The latest release has just been bottled ready for sale but will not be released to the market for a further 2 to 3 years as it is allowed to settle in the bottle after being decanted from the Demijons.
Whilst the wines are ageing in the Demijohns they are sampled every few years to see if they are reaching optimum maturity. There is no science or plan to this, just the judgement of the winemaker and Dirk Niepoort as to when to release the wine. Once the decision is made, every Demijohn from that vintage is decanted into a steel cask and then bottled without filtration.
I am looking for a bottle of Niepoort 1955, my birth year, supposedly a very fine year!

Other wonderful Ports that are worth taking seriously.