Dirk
van der Niepoort and his remarkable wines
a retrospective of the work of
Portugal's most famous winemaker
Website: www.niepoort-vinhos.com
I
first met Portuguese winemaker Dirk Niepoort in 2002, at one of what
was to become a series of annual Dirk Niepoort dinners for UK trade
and press. At that first meeting, I asked him what his winemaking
philosophy was. ‘I like wines with extremes,’ he explained.
‘As rich and tannic as possible, but they have to have harmony.’
It’s a typical Niepoort answer. After meeting him on many
occasions subsequently, I regard him as one of the sharpest, most
provocative and most thoughtful of all winemakers: always willing to
experiment, and with a strong sense of direction that comes from
being a student of the world’s great wines.
Dirk
was born in March 1964 to a family who owned a small Port shipping
business, the van der Niepoorts. After a spell away studying,
working in a wine shop and making wine, Dirk returned to the family
firm in 1987, and was determined to do something different. With
fruit from two newly purchased Quintas—Napoles (in 1987) and
Carril (in 1988)—he decided to try making table wine.
His first foray into winemaking, Robustus,
was an important wine in the history of Douro reds, simply because
it was Dirk’s first. Robustus 1990 was an experiment made with
grapes from Quinta do Carril, an old vineyard planted in 1925.
Carril has a mixture of many varieties, predominantly Touriga
Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Amarela, and is now the source of
Batuta. Significantly, it is north facing. ‘It’s the first time
I made wines from Carril,’ says Dirk. ‘Over the years I had come
to the conclusion that south-facing vineyards were best for Port,
but for making great red wine you need more even ripening. In
north-facing vineyards you don’t have direct sun so you don’t
have burnt characters or heaviness.’ He adds that because of more
even ripening, in the Douro with its hot summers north-facing
vineyards often result in wines with more alcohol because in the
south-facing spots maturity is stopped at the hottest times.
Dirk
in the Niepoort lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia
‘When I started making wine I had a dream
of making an elegant wine,’ he reveals. ‘But Robustus 1990 was a
monster: overextracted, dark, strange—too much.’ Indeed, there
seems to be a parallel here with Australia’s most famous table
wine, Grange. When Max Schubert first made the wine in 1951, in an
era where fortified wine was dominant, it was derided—to the
extent that he had to take the project underground. Dirk’s first
wine met with a poor reception from his father, who thought so badly
of it that he sold the majority of it off while Dirk was in
Australia in 1991. Of the initial five pipes, just one was left,
which made a production of 630 bottles and 45 magnums.
 Dirk reveals how he served the Robustus to
Michael Broadbent, who described it as the Latour of Portugal.
Dirk’s father, Rolf, responded saying that it was disgusting and
smelled of new wood. Dirk countered by saying that it was never in
new wood. Michael says, ‘Rolf, it’s really good.’ Rolf says,
‘It smells of shit.’ Then they opened some 1945s and the evening
went well from there.
However, Dirk was convinced of the
potential of the wine. ‘This is a wine region with 2000 years of
tradition, but 1950 years of bad winemaking,’ he says. ‘For the
last 200 years the wine side has been mistreated because Port has
been the focus. From 1990–2000 wines developed quite slowly, but
from 2001 onwards there has been a dramatic change: we are living
through a revolution.’
Of Robustus, Dirk says ‘I am very proud
of it,’ and says that despite the mistakes he made, he thinks it
is amazing how good it tastes.
Niepoort
Robustus 1990
Very dark colour. Exotic, spicy, medicinal
nose is complex with some dark chocolate notes and nice full red and
black fruits. The palate is dense and spicy with lovely acidity.
It’s quite bold and full, and surprisingly youthfull still, with
crunchy, dusty, spicy tannic structure. Rustic, but in a nice way: a
delicious wine drinking well. Very good/excellent 92/100 (05/06)
Redoma
The next stage in the Niepoort revolution
was Redoma, which was the first commercially released
Niepoort table wine, with the 1991 vintage (which, when tasted in
May 2006, was still going strong). This became Dirk’s main wine,
and he made it throughout the 1990s, shifting in style a little as
he tried to find the right direction, and adding a white partner in
1993. In the late 1990s, Dirk took the step of hiring a winemaker to
assist him. He chose Jorge Serodio Borges, who was the brother of
Margarida Serodio Borges of Quinta do Fojo (who Dirk once dated). Dirk says that he
had been looking for someone to work with him for five years, until
he found Jorge. He was looking for someone ‘technically better and
different,’ but at the same time someone who would understand him.
With the 1999 vintage, Jorge’s first,
Dirk decided that he had finally hit a style that he was happy with.
This was also the debut vintage for Dirk’s new high-end wine,
Batuta (more on this later). He describes 1999 Redoma as a monster
wine: big, alcoholic and impressive. He thinks 2001 is the best:
this is where Redoma should be. ‘Redoma should show the wildness
of the Douro: harshness, edges, not most polished,’ says Dirk,
‘but I don’t want it to be jammy.’
However, after a few years the relationship
between Dirk and Jorge deteriorated, and Jorge ended up leaving in
2003. Dirk hired his current winemaker, Luis Seabra, as a
replacement.
Niepoort
Redoma 2008
Fresh, focused dark cherry fruit with lovely structure and good
acidity. Shows finesse. Taut with a slightly roast coffee edge from
the oak. Lovely structure and potential for development. 92/100
(10/10)
Niepoort
Redoma 2007 (from magnum)
Taut and savoury with some spiciness. Quite refined and youthful
with wildness but also finesse. Fresh with good acidity and dark
cherry and berry fruits, with lovely structure. Finely wrought and
precise. 93/100 (03/11)
Niepoort
Redoma 2007
Very fresh and elegant with cherries and plums. Lovely freshness
and good structure. Fantastically fresh with good structure and nice
savouriness. Great potential 93/100 (03/10)
Niepoort Redoma 2006
Sweet, pure, ripe blackcurrant and blackberry fruit
nose is quite forward. The palate has a really ripe, supple, fruity
character with some nice spicy structure underneath, as well as good
acidity. A fruity version of Redoma, but still balanced. 92/100
(11/08)
Niepoort Redoma 2006
Focused, fresh, spicy nose with red berry and black
fruits, as well as a bit of sweet cherry. The palate shows sweet,
smooth, elegant fruit with lovely focus and some firm tannic
structure underneath it. 93/100 (06/08)
Niepoort Redoma 2005
Bright, focused nose is spicy, fresh and intense with
lovely focus. The palate is bold and full with lovely fresh spicy
fruit, grippy tannins and good acidity. Great depth here, and lovely
purity, as well as some wildness. 94/100 (05/07)
Niepoort
Redoma 2004
Rich, pure, chocolatey, sweet dark fruits
nose. The palate is smooth with sweet dark fruits and also an
earthy, spicy complexity. Nice freshness combines well with
richness. A really nice presice wine. Very good/excellent 93/100
(05/06)
Niepoort
Redoma 2004
This is the wine that sums up the Douro for me. Lovely bright,
spicy definition to the nose which shows brilliant red and black
fruits. The palate has great acidity and lots of structure. It’s
similar in style to the 2001, just a bit finer and a little better.
Less wild, too—but everything is here. Very good/excellent 94/100
(05/06)
Niepoort Redoma 2002
A good effort from a difficult year. Smooth, savoury, ripe nose is
quite elegant. The palate is structured and subtly earthy, with nice
tannins. Very good/excellent 92/100 (02/06)
Niepoort
Redoma 2001
Dark, spicy, chocolatey fruit nose
countered by lovely fresh spiciness. The palate is bold and dense
but fresh at the same time, with good acid and a nice tight
spiciness. A really lovely expressive wine with great potential.
Very good/excellent 93/100 (05/06)
Niepoort Redoma 2001
‘It’s not supposed to be the best wine
in the world’, says Dirk, ‘but rather it should be the best
expression of the Douro without pretending to be the finest. It has
great personality with some tannins and acidity that can be a bit
striking.’ This is showing really well now. It’s tight and firm
but has a lovely freshness. The dominant feature is bright red
fruits with a spicy, almost Italian character and hints of
chocolatey richness. The palate is bright and fresh with serious
tannic structure and good acidity – a fantastic wine with a long
life ahead of it. Very good/excellent 94/100 (05/05)
Niepoort Redoma 2000
70 year old vines and miserly yields of 15 hl/ha result in a classy
red wine that will reward patience. Classy nose of chocolatey,
herby, spicy berry fruit is clean, modern and correct, and less wild
than previous vintages. Well integrated new oak. Good concentration
on the rich spicy palate with firm tannins and good acidity. 93/100
(04/03)
Niepoort
Redoma 1999
Sweet, slightly meaty dark fruits nose with
nice smoothness and spiciness. The palate is open, meaty and spicy
with smooth sweet dark fruits and a hint of olive. Nice spicy tannic
bite. It’s made in quite a modern style but has attractive sleek
darkly fruited expression. Very good/excellent 92/100 (05/06)
Niepoort
Redoma 1997
Very
deep red/purple colour. Intense nose shows rich herby blackcurrant
and plum fruit with just a touch of new oak. The palate is
concentrated, chewy and herby with rich fruit and some tannic
structure. There’s also an attractive medicinal edge. Quite classy
stuff. Very good/excellent. (05/02)
Niepoort
Redoma 1996
Fourth
release of this wine. A blend of Tinta Amarela, Touriga Francesca
and Tinta Roriz. Some of the wine is aged in barriques. Red/black
colour, this is concentrated stuff. Firm, complex, earthy and
mineral notes combine with a strong structure and great complexity.
Lovely stuff. (05/00)
Niepoort
Redoma 1994
This
Douro red from Niepoort is made from Tinta Amarela, Touriga Francesa
and Tinta Roriz vines with an average age of 55 years. It was
bottled unfiltered in July 1997. An opaque purple black, this has a
powerful nose of cherries and olives, with some garrigue-like herbal
notes, some chocolate and some coffee. On the palate it is
concentrated, with firm, dry tannins. This is a massive wine! Huge
and savoury, dark and brooding, with bitter cherries and herbs
coming to the fore, the oak it has seen is virtually undetectable.
Imagine a bone dry, young port. Sensational stuff, distinctly
Portuguese, and one of the most memorable wines I have had in recent
months. (10/99)
Niepoort
Redoma 1991
The first Redoma. Smooth, dark fruits nose is quite refined with a
subtle, spicy minerality. The palate is smooth and nicely fruity
with a bit of minerality and good tannins. Really quite elegant and
balanced: a lovely wine ageing well and now drinking superbly.
93/100 (05/06)
Batuta
With
Batuta, Dirk once said to me that his aim is to make a ‘monster'
wine, but at the same time one that it extremely elegant. Rather
enigmatically he says, ‘I like wines that are a bit in excess, but
always tasting the opposite of what they are.’ Batuta
comes from Quinta do Carril, and if Charme is Niepoort’s
Burgundy-style wine, then this is his tilt at Bordeaux. No Batuta
was made in 2002 or 2006.
Niepoort
Batuta 2008
Lovely pure raspberry, black cherry and mineral nose. The palate
is bold and dense with lovely structure and purity. Bold, dense dark
fruits here with great freshness and a bit of meatiness. Finesse and
length, too. 96/100 (10/10)
Niepoort
Batuta 2008
Fresh and intense with nice definition and raspberry and black
cherry fruit. Fine acidity. Mineralic, spicy structure. With great
definition, this is a serious wine that is still very primary.
95/100 (02/11)
Niepoort
Batuta 2007 (from magnum)
Tight with some spicy oak notes, and fine black cherry and
blackberry fruit. Concentrated, fine, mineral and taut on the palate
with good acidity and fine tannins. Still tannic and youthful with
some oak imprint, but this has great potential for development.
95/100 (03/11)
Niepoort
Batuta 2007
Sweet, focused, pure berry and cherry fruit nose. The palate is
pure and elegant with a sappy note and amazing fruit focus. Pure and
unadorned with firm yet refined structure. Not size, but beauty.
95/100 (10/09)
Niepoort
Batuta 2006
(barrel sample - in the end, no Batuta was released in 2006)
Vivid, spicy, chocolatey dark fruits nose. The palate is firm and
structured yet still elegant with lovely presence and potential.
95/100 (10/07)
Niepoort
Batuta 2005
Quite
elegant, fresh and vivid with an intense red fruits nose. The palate
is smooth and intense with red and black fruits. Nice precision and
freshness. There’s lots of elegant fruit here with some grippy but
sophisticated tannins. Serious stuff with a long future ahead of it.
96/100 (05/07)
Niepoort
Batuta 2004
Lovely full, fresh nose showing sweet dark chocolatey, spicy notes.
Great definition. The palate is concentrated with rich, sweet fruit,
but under this the structure is huge. A powerful yet elegant,
intense yet refined wine that is simply thrilling. A fresh, tight
style with lots of potential. Excellent 96/100 (05/06)
Niepoort Batuta 2003
‘This is a wine I like a lot, even though
I am not the greatest fan of 2003,’ says Dirk. Batuta spends
30–45 days on skins, but not to achieve bigger tannins, but rather
finer tannins. ‘It is a big wine, but it is elegant and quite
light’. Dirk adds as an aside that if a wine is not so ripe, then
it needs longer in oak to get the balance right. This wines shows a
rich, ripe perfumed nose of great precision. Some rich, slightly
chocolatey oak is currently showing. Dense, concentrated palate with
some supple, spicy fruit that is still absurdly primary. Fine and
elegant, a serious young wine of great potential. 93–96/100 (this
was a sample of the final blend before bottling) (05/05)
Niepoort
Batuta 2001
Very dark intense, spicy chocolatey nose.
Very fine, with complex spicy red and black fruits, although it
isn’t fruit dominated. The palate is concentrated, chewy and dense
with very firm but fine texture, and some wood in the background.
Great acidity. This is a remarkable wine with a long future ahead of
it. I wouldn’t open it for a decade. Excellent 95/100 (11/04)
Niepoort Batuta 2001
Douro
Perfumed chocolatey, spicy nose with some roasted notes and taut
dark fruits. There’s a lovely tight, rounded spicy structure to
the palate which has more of that roasted edge and a spicy finish.
Dense, taut and concentrated this is a young wine with a lot of
potential. Refreshingly this is only 12.8% alcohol. Two days later
we retried what was left in the bottle: it was still dense and
tight, but the roasted character has diminished, which brings the
focused fruit more to the fore. Very good/excellent 94/100 (03/04)
Niepoort Batuta 2000
Douro
Tight herby nose is a little shy. The palate is dense, taut, spicy
and herby with great concentration of fruit and a firm structure,
together with vibrant acidity. It’s got great structure but
presently it is at a bit of an awkward stage in its development.
It's a more polite, less extreme wine than the other two. Very
good/excellent 91/100 (03/04)
Niepoort Batuta 1999
Douro
A little shy on the nose initially, this opens out to show ripe red
and black fruits with a savoury spicy edge. The palate shows chewy,
spicy fruit with great structure and super balance. Lots of
personality here. Good acidity underlying the vivid fruit. Some of
the initial impact that this wine had a couple of years ago has
gone, and it's yet to take on the secondary complexity that comes
with age. Patience will be required. Very good/excellent 93/100
(03/04)
Quinta
do Carril
Charme
In
contrast to Batuta, with Charme Dirk’s aim is ‘finesse, finesse,
finesse.’ Charme is an unusual wine in several respects. The
grapes are foot trodden in lagares (large, shallow stone
troughs) with the stems, which you’d think would result in a
harsh, tannic wine. But Dirk’s view is that foot-treading with
stems can actually produce elegant wines, and he cites Domaine de la
Romanée Conti as his precedent. ‘It’s very difficult to make
wine with stems,’ he says. ‘If they are too green, they result
in aggressive, unbalanced wines with off flavours.’ Timing the
pressing correctly is also important. ‘In 2001 we missed pressing
of one lagar by five hours. It won’t be a Charme.’
Interestingly, Dirk alludes to the fact that his inspiration for
Charme comes from Grand Cru red Burgundy. Burgundy-like wines from
the Douro? The other unusual thing about the inaugural 2000 Charme
is that it received Pingus-like 200% new oak treatment (malolactic
fermentation in new barrels followed by racking to more new
barrels). Dirk say that this is not an experiment he will repeat,
although the result is not as oaky as you’d think it might be.
‘It’s the most complicated wine to make
on earth,’ he explains. ‘Everything has to be perfect.’ Dirk
admits that although ‘it’s a pain in the ass to make, the result
is quite nice.’
Charme
2002 is a fascinating wine. It’s made from low yielding vines
picked a little early, with 100% stem contact. ‘I want it to be
light, concentrated and long,’ says Dirk. This shows ripe
chocolatey edged fruity on the nose—ripe and full. Black fruits
dominate with tarry richness and some new oak. There’s great
elegance and finesse, with a rich spicy finish.
‘It’s
different from anything else we do,’ says Dirk. ‘It is based on
having as much finesse, elegance and complexity as possible from the
Douro, which is quite warm.’ Of the 2005, he describes it as ‘my
cup of tea.’ ‘I wanted to pick earlier, and in 2005 we picked
two weeks earlier than analysis suggested.’ The main varieties are
Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz, and it is from 80 year old
vineyards, yielding at 10–15 hl/ha. ‘It is the best wine we have
done,’ he said (this was in 2007).
Niepoort
Charme 2008
Pale-ish colour. Expressive, open cherryish nose with lovely purity
and a mineral edge. The palate has a warm texture with pure fruit.
Silky and intense with red cherries and berries. Pure and seductive.
95/100 (10/10)
Niepoort
Charme 2007
Fine and fresh with red
cherry and spice notes on the nose. The palate has a lovely taut,
spicy savouriness, with fine-grained tannins and good structure.
Pure and dense but really fine. 95/100 (03/11)
Niepoort Charme 2006
Nicely elegant, fresh, pure sweet cherry and berry
fruit nose. The palate is smooth and super-elegant with lovely
freshness and purity. Nice acidity, too. Pretty serious stuff with
real purity, although I notice that others have given this some low
scores: I disagree. 94/100 (11/08)
Niepoort Charme 2006
Perfumed, elegant nose with aromatic cherry fruit and
some chocolatey, spicy, oaky notes. The palate is bright and elegant
with lovely sweet fruit and nice spiciness. Currently some oak
showing, but this is well set for an interesting evolution. 93/100
(06/08)
Niepoort Charme 2005
Smooth, spicy, warm, elegant nose is expressive and
pure. The palate is warm with some chocolatey richness and a bit of
spice. Great concentration, but really elegant with it. Amazing.
96/100 (10/07)
Niepoort Charme 2005
Rich, smooth and stylish with real elegance to it. A
rich style, but with some stemmy, spicy freshness on the nose. Great
concentration and freshness, with just a hint of spicy greenness,
allied with the smooth, rich red fruits on the palate. 95/100
(05/07)
Niepoort
Charme 2004
Smooth,
elegant, perfumed, slightly chocolatey nose. The palate is soft,
smooth and quite elegant. There’s some concentration here, but
also great smoothness and elegance. One for the future: I reckon
this will evolve really nicely. 94/100 (02/07)
Niepoort
Charme 2004
Smooth, sweet, open elegant nose with hints of chocolate and
vanilla. The palate is soft and concentrated with refined tannins
and nice spiciness to the structure. However, the tannins hide well
behind the fruit. Is it a hint of new wood showing, or the influence
of the stems? A serious wine with a great future ahead of it, and
one which may well outperform Batuta in the future, although the
styles are quite different. 95/100 (05/06)
Niepoort Charme 2002
Quite deep coloured, the nose shows sweet aromatic, spicy-edged red
berry and cherry fruit. Smooth and aromatic. The palate is dense an
firm with some nice tannic structure and a core of tight spiciness.
There’s some elegance here, but also some structure, with a
subtle, integrated greenness. Stylish and intense with lovely
purity, and beginning to evolve nicely—if I had some I’d keep it
for a while before opening. 93/100 (11/08)
Niepoort Charme 2002
‘2002 was a bad year in the Douro, but
for Charme it was pretty much perfect,’ says Dirk. ‘Three
quarters were picked before the rain and a quarter was picked
after.’ There was some dilution of the must in the rained-on
portion, and they were kept separate. But in the journey to Napoles
the barrels were mixed up, although this took a while to work out
because the diluted portion tasted so good. Lovely rich, soft
elegant nose with a chocolatey edge to it. The smooth palate is ripe
and sweet edged with a lovely elegance and some warmth. Nice spicy
finish: this is serious stuff. 93/100 (05/05)
Dirk
discussing his wines at one of his legendary dinners
Redoma
Rosé
‘A
lot of people think they don’t like Rosé’, says Dirk, ‘but
this is because most Rosés are treated as garbage.’ Many are made
with a bit of residual sugar to hide the mistakes. Dirk first tried
to do Rosé in 1996, and in 1999 he decided to step up the quantity
a bit. Initially it was made with saignée (vat bleeding) of the
best reds, but the result proved a little heavy. In 2000 Dirk
changed things round a bit. Into the blend went some Tinta Amarela
that he’d picked early to get good acidity and lower alcohol, and
a portion of the whole blend was barrel fermented. The results since
have been impressive: this is a gastronomic wine that seems to age
well.
Niepoort Redoma Rosé
2001
This is about as serious as Rosé gets. 25% is fermented in new
wood, some in old wood and the rest in stainless steel. Dirk says
that the wood helps to keep it alive in the ageing process, and
thinks that this may age for a few years. It’s a deep pink/red
colour. Savoury, fresh nose with some herby, strawberry fruit. The
palate is savoury and fresh with herb-tinged taut fruit. Still
tasting youthful with no sign of the wood. Very good+ 89/100 (05/04)
Niepoort Redoma Rosé
1999, Douro
Very small quantities of this, the inaugural vintage of the Redoma
Rosé, were made. It's an unusual wine: a wonderful orange/red
colour, it has a spicy, herby nose with a rather wild edge to it. On
the palate it's a little bit spritzy and very spicy, with high
acidity and a bit of tannin underneath. A full flavoured Rosé, good
with food, but a little odd. The 2000 incarnation is a bit more
mainstream, and a better wine in my opinion. Very good (05/01)
Redoma
Branco and Branco Reserva
‘In
the beginning I didn’t believe that the Douro had good terroir for
white wines,’ recalls Dirk. ‘But eventually we found a 70 year
old vineyard 400 metres high up where the grower was prepared to
pick the three white varieties separately.’ This was in 1993 and it was potentially a bad vintage:
there was lots of rain which resulted in dilution. Dirk asked the
grower he’d contracted to pick everything separately by variety,
but the grapes arrived all in one big container. But since then
he’s never done anything separately, and has worked mostly with
old vines, making a Reserva for the first time in 1995.
The
altitude is important in the Douro for whites: at 400 m it is
considerably cooler than the hot temperatures at river level. All
Dirk’s whites are made from vineyards with 400–800 m elevation.
Dirk has decided that he doesn’t like Malvasia Fina for table
wines, and that Rabigato is one of his favourites—this forms the
base of his whites. The Redoma Branco Reserva is usually made from
three vineyards with a vine age of greater than 100 years. One of
these vineyards has granitic soils. ‘I feel it is important: it
shows the minerality of the schist in the blend a lot more,’ says
Dirk. The whites are fermented and aged in barrels for 12 months
with no racking. Yields in these old vineyards range from 5–25
hl/ha, which are very low. Malolactic is avoided to preserve the all
important acidity. Since
the inaugural vintage he’s shifted the style more to elegance and
lightness.
Niepoort
Redoma Branco Reserva 2009
Beautifully aromatic and precise on the nose: toast, nuts,
minerals. The palate is fresh, nutty and precise with pear, peach,
citrus and some minerality. Broad, long, expressive. 94/100 (10/10)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco 2009
Lovely expressive nose is ripe but fresh. The palate has nice,
rich, bold pear fruit with some subtle nuttiness. Nicely rich yet
still fresh. 90/100 (10/10)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco Reserva 2008
Lovely taut, mineral, grapefruit pith freshness to the nose.
Intense and aromatic. The palate has depth and texture with some
toasty richness. 93/100 (10/09)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco 2008
Very fine and persistent with minerality and fruit purity.
Fresh, balanced and expressive. 91/100 (10/09)
Niepoort Redoma Branco Reserva 2007
Subtly toasty nose with sweetness to the fruit. The
palate is bright, dense and fruit with lovely focus and a subtle
nutty vanilla edge. Really delicious with lots of potential for
development. 93/100 (11/08)
Niepoort Redoma Branco Reserva 2007
Very refined fresh mineralic nose is taut and rather
intense. The palate is thick-textured yet fresh with lovely
intensity of sweet fruit and well integrated oak. Great power, yet
still elegant. 93/100 (06/08)
Niepoort Redoma Branco 2007
Lovely focused nose showing bright, slightly nutty
fruit with well integrated toasty oak. Bold palate is fresh and
minerally with lovely dense fruit, some rich spicy oak and fresh
acidity. Delicious. 92/100 (06/08)
Niepoort Redoma Branco Reserva 2006
Lovely nose: fresh and elegant with a wonderful
aromatic depth. The palate has a delicious texture: broad but with
lovely freshness and subtle oak influence. Thrilling. 93/100 (10/07)
Niepoort Redoma Branco 2006
Beautifully fresh zippy, minerally, lemony nose. The
palate is quite rich and full with lovely nutty fruit and a rich
texture. Fresh and light but concentrated at the same time. 92/100
(10/07)
Niepoort Redoma Branco 2006
Lovely rich, pure fruit here with lemon notes and some
subtle herbiness. Quite fresh with subtle oak influence and rounded
texture. 91/100 (05/07)
Niepoort Redoma Branco
Reserva 2005
Smooth and intense with a creamy, toasty vanilla edge to the nose.
The palate has concentration and depth with lovely freshness and
minerality. Very sophisticated. 93/100 (05/07)
Niepoort Redoma Branco
Reserva 2005
Bright lemony nose is aromatic and precise with some toastiness.
Waxy, weighty, lively palate is taut and complex with good acidity.
It’s really alive. 92/100 (02/07)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco Reserva 2005 (cask sample)
Fresh, open primary nose. The palate is
very primary with tight, fresh minerally fruit. Nice minerality
here, and good acidity. There’s a sort of spicy edge to the fruit
and this wine is in a fresh, elegant style. Lots of potential. Very
good/excellent 91–93/100 (05/06)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco Reserva 2004
Fantastic stuff: rich, bold, toasty and
herby with a lovely minerally freshness to the palate. There’s
great concentration here and lots of complexity, made in the style
of a serious white Burgundy with well integrated oak. A brilliant
wine that should evolve well. Very good/excellent 94/100 (05/06)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco Reserva 2004
Made from three old vineyards at altitude. Predominantly Rabigato,
but with some Viozinho, Donzelinho, Dodega and Arinto, as well as
others, too. Really nice perfumed nose is rich, full, fruity and
lemony with complex waxy notes. Really lovely densely textured
palate is fruity and smooth with a nice herbiness and long, spicy,
mineralic finish. Very good/excellent 94/100 (05/06)
Niepoort Redoma Branco
2003
Rich, toasty nose is quite intense and very full, with a bit of
minerality. The palate is rich textured and full with lots of fruit
and good intensity. Nutty, minerally finish: potentially fantastic.
Very good/excellent 92/100 (11/04)
Niepoort Redoma Branco
Reserva 2003
Complex, elegant, intense nose is rich, toasty, smooth and very
fine. The palate is smooth and concentrated
with a creamy, mineralic edge. Fantastic effort. Very
good/excellent 94/100 (11/04)
Niepoort Redoma Branco
2002
2002 is considered to be a bad year in the Douro, but some growers
really did pick certain vineyards before the rains that plagued this
harvest. That’s the case for this wine, which comes from
60–120-year old vineyards at high altitude. The wine is
barrel-fermented and aged in barrique for 12 months. There’s a
little bit of wood on the nose with lovely minerality: fresh and
appealing with a slightly smoky, spicy edge. The palate is intense,
savoury, minerally and spicy with good acidity. Very fresh and
potentially long lived: I’d guess that this will be brilliant in a
decade’s time. It’s already hard to resist. 93/100 (05/04)
Niepoort Redoma Branco
2001 Douro
Served blind, this was a ringer for a serious young white Burgundy.
Very open rich toasty nose with savoury, bready, toasty intensity.
The palate is concentrated with lemony fruit and well judged oak.
Powerful with good acidity and minerality. Very good/excellent
92/100 (03/04)
Niepoort
Redoma Branco Reserva 1997
Made from the Rabigato grape fermented in new French oak barrels. A
richly textured white with an intense, nutty flavours. Very good.
(05/00)
Old Garrafeiras in the Niepoort
cellars
Vertente
Vertente
is positioned below the other reds, fashioned mainly from young
vineyards and bought-in grapes. It’s sees a shorter time in wood
and only 20% is aged in new barrels. Made
from 15–60 year old vineyards, with quite a lot of Touriga
Nacional and not as much Tinta Amarela as Dirk’s other wines. In
making Vertente, Dirk wanted to make a wine with Douro character but
which is approachable a bit earlier, and is fruitier and cheaper
than the others. He wants to make a wine
that is more consumer friendly than Redoma with a bit more fruit.
‘Still, I don’t want to make a commercial easy drinking wine.’
He hopes that with five years of age it will behave like a nice
Claret.
Niepoort
Vertente 2008
Bright, fruity, vibrant, with nice cherry and berry fruit, as
well as some spiciness. Hints of oak, with good acidity. Pure,
classic style. 89/100 (10/10)
Niepoort
Vertente 2007
Very lively, bright, sappy, berryish nose with freshness and purity
of fruit. Lovely wine. 90/100 (10/09)
Niepoort
Vertente 2006
Fresh, spicy, vivid nose with a bit of chocolatey richness. The
palate is fresh with a spicy richness under the focused, smooth,
ripe berryish fruit. A digestible, sweetly fruited red. 89/100
(06/08)
Niepoort
Vertente 2005
Lovely pure bright cherryish fruit. The palate is vibrantly fruity
and quite classy with fresh, bright fruit, a hint of vanilla
sweetness and lovely spicy structure. Pure and fruit driven. 90/100
(05/07)
Niepoort Vertente 2005
Fresh withhigh acidity and focused pure fruit backed up by some
spicy warmth and firm tannins. It’s a savoury, understated style.
Quite fresh. 91/100 (10/07)
Niepoort
Vertente 2004
Lovely bright fresh red fruits here with good acidity. A nice wine
showing good concentration and freshness. Very good+ 89/100
(05/06)
Niepoort Vertente 2001
Nice savoury berry and cherry fruit with a hint of green herbiness.
The palate shows vibrant berry fruits with great depth, some
structure and an appealing savoury character. Lovely balance to the
fruit and nice spicy finish: a delicious wine that could probably do
with a few more years. Very good+ 89/100
Napoles
Tiara
A relatively new addition to the Niepoort stable, first
made in 2004. Dirk says his objective is ‘to make Riesling without
Riesling.’ It is made from old vine Codega, with the grapes being
pressed immediately so there’s no maceration with the skins. No
yeasts were added, so Dirk’s winemaker Luis Seabra got nervous
with the 2004, because after over a week the must still hadn’t
started fermenting. They added 5 litres of already-fermenting
Redoma, and still things didn’t start going. In the end they added
15 litres, and fermentation began. In the end it took three months
to complete. ‘Oxidising musts in white wine can be good,’
explains Dirk, ‘and can give complexity.’ The wine was removed
from gross lees just before fermentation stopped, and before
bottling it was filtered because there hadn’t been any malolactic.
‘The whole process has something to do with patience and nerve,’
he says. It’s the only white Niepoort wine that isn’t fermented
in wood, and comes from a 100 year old vineyard at 600 metres. Low
temperature fermentation.
Niepoort
Tiara 2009
Very aromatic and sweetly fruited with pure pear and apple fruit.
The palate has nice breadth and lovely pure fruit. Expressive and
quite rich. Lovely. 91/100 (10/10)
Niepoort
Tiara 2008
Lovely fresh, bright, focused white with some minerality and a
hint of nuttiness. Lovely. 90/100 (10/09)
Niepoort
Tiara 2007
Fresh and aromatic with a crisp, slightly
creamy edge to the nose, and some minerality. The palate has some
breadth to it, but overall it is fresh fruity and bright with an
attractive minerally finish. 89/100 (06/08)
Niepoort
Tiara 2006
Lemony fresh nose. The palate is rich and
fat with lovely texture, but also minerally freshness. A little
sweetness here? Stylish wine. 90/100 (05/07)
Niepoort
Tiara 2004
This has a fresh, crisp limey nose that is
quite savoury. It’s a bit like a cross between a Riesling and a
Vinho Verde. The palate is crisp and savoury, with good acidity.
Fresh minerality and lots of focus and precision. 92/100 (05/05)
Robsutus
The name of Dirk’s first ever wine, this has been
reborn, beginning with the 2004 vintage (released in late 2008).
It’s the most expensive Niepoort table wine, and should age
brilliantly.
Niepoort
Robsutus 2004
This is really coming together, with sweet, pure mineral and
spice notes on the nose as well as black cherry fruit. The sweetly
fruited palate shows huge concentration with mineral, earth and
spice complexity and amazing tannic structure integrated brilliantly
with the dense fruit. It's really putting on weight. 97/100 (10/09)
Niepoort Robustus 2004
A new release, named after the very first ever Niepoort
table wine, an experiment dating back to 1990. This spent 18 months
in barrel, then went to old wood. The 2005 has gone straight to old
wood. Tight aromatic, spicy berry fruit nose. The palate is
beautifully structured, dense and tight with a spicy edge to the
fruit. A fresh, tannic wine with high acidity. Serious effort for
the long haul, and I’d expect to rate this even higher in a few
years’ time. 93/100 (11/08)
‘Drink
Me’
An entry-level
Niepoort wine made in larger volumes from brought–in grapes. It
goes by different names in different European markets, and the
distinctive feature is the clever label design, which features a
different cartoon for each market.
Niepoort
'Drink Me' 2008
Fresh, bright, pure aromatic nose with nice cherry and berry fruit.
The palate is fresh and cherryish with lovely pure fruit and a nice
grippy finish. 90/100 (10/10)
Niepoort 'Drink Me' 2006
Dark, spicy and a
bit earthy with some cherry and blackberry fruit on the nose. The
palate is savoury and dense with attractive earthy, spicy notes, as
well as good acidity. Fresh and quite complex, with lots of
personality (perhaps a hint of Brettanomyces, too, but it works well
in the context of this wine, which is delicious). 89/100 (£10 Noble
Green Wines, Fareham Wine Cellar, and other independents) 03/09
Projectos
Website: www.niepoort-projectos.com
Niepoort ‘Projectos’ are small experimental
projects, released in limited quantities. They are really
interesting, verging on the slightly crazy—for example, Pinot Noir
in the Douro?
Two Rieslings were released from the 2007 vintage, both
made from the same 20 year old vineyard at 800 metres elevation. The
first is dry, the second off-dry.
Niepoort Projectos Riesling 2007
Vinho Regional Duriense
Very fresh, bright and limey/citrussy on the nose. The
palate is nicely dense and dry with lovely mineral citrus pith
flavours. Tightwound, dense and fresh. 90/100 (11/08)
Niepoort Projectos Riesling ‘Dócil’
2007 Vinho Regional Duriense
This is 8% alcohol with 50 g/litre residual sugar. Very
fresh, appley citrus nose with some sweet notes. Lovely weight on
the palate: pure and primary with sweet melon/citrus notes and a
rich texture. Off dry, with lovely acidity. 91/100 (11/08)
Niepoort
Projectos Pinot Noir 2006
Vinho Regional Duriense
A nine-year old vineyard planted at 12 000
vines/hectare, on a 300 m high north-facing plot. Harvested 26
August and fermented in wooden vats with 30% stems and the rest
entire berries, with 70 days skin contact and malolactic in barrel.
Sweet and super-elegant with lovely soft but forward cherry fruit,
helped by some spicy structure. Light and expressive with subtle
earthiness. Really interesting wine. 91/100 (11/08)
Niepoort Riesling 2003
Riesling in the Douro? You’d better believe it. Dirk
bought these grapes from Cockburns, who planted an experimental
vineyard some 15 years ago at 800 m altitude (high up where it’s
cooler). This has lovely fresh definition on the nose with some CO2
evident. The palate shows high acid, minerality and lovely weight
and texture – it’s got some rich sweetness, but it isn’t too
big. (03/04)
Niepoort Voyeur 2006
This is a special edition wine for an art project (not
one of the Projectos). It’s old vine fruit, foot-trodden with
stems and aged in old barrels. Super-elegant style with aromatic
berry and cherry fruit with a lifted spiciness. The palate is smooth
and elegant with a delicate earthy, spicy ‘terroir’ quality
under the fruit. Light, delicate and delicious. 94/100 (11/08)
Doda/Dado
This
is a joint project with Alvaro Castro of the Dão, and it's a half
Douro, half Dão wine. This is written
up separately, here.
Wines tasted in month/year indicated
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