Niepoort
Bucking the trend, as is his way, avoiding conforming, Dirk Niepoort has proudly declared his excellent Vintage Ports in 2015. When we tasted with him he asked rhetorically 'Why would I not? 2015 was as perfect as it gets!' From our tasting this declaration is completely justified. The wines are superb. At Niepoort the aim is harmony and balance and he has this in spades with the 2015.
At the same time that famous English names were establishing themselves in the Douro, the other great Port importing nation - the Netherlands - was sending bright business types to set up Port Houses. One such was Franciscus Marius van der Niepoort. Five generations later and the dynamic Dirk van der Niepoort is at the helm.
Niepoort used to be well-known for their Tawny and Colheita ports, but Dirk has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of their Vintage Ports too. One of the key moves, with this in mind, was for Niepoort to purchase their own vineyards with Quintas de Nápoles, do Carril and do Passadouro coming under the Niepoort wing at the end of the 1990's.
