So who is Dirk Niepoort? The company was established in 1842 and Dirk is the 5th generation of his family to make and ship Port. Since Dirk took the reins Niepoort has been recognised as one of the truly great creators of the best Port wine, the designer behind the very finest red and white table wines of the Douro and a global ambassador for Portugal. His combination of attention to detail, a creative mind and fearsome dedication to industry are legendary. As result of this hard work and enterprise the Niepoort winery has been showered with accolades – making the wines increasingly scarce. This year they have already been nominated as Winery of the Year by Wine & Spirit Magazine and European Winemaker of the Year by US Magazine Wine Enthusiast. Voted as One of the 50 most influential winemakers in the world Dirk is one of the most popular figures in the wine trade today.
What is it? Late Bottled Vintage is port from a single year. The wine is aged 4-6 years in old oak casks making a softer more approachable style to regular Vintage, which has just a couple years oak aging. To many port aficionados LBV fills the gap between the soft, nutty ruby port style and the tougher vintage ports, particularly since a ruby port should be drunk quite young and a great vintage port may need up to 15 or 20 years to really open up and show its full splendour. The 4 to 6 years of aging in large casks before bottling produces a wine with the style of a vintage port with its deep colour and concentration of fruit but with a more mature character caused by the longer ageing in wood. Traditionally an estate’s best grapes would become LBV in year when no ‘Port Vintage’ was declared. One great concern today is that many houses, including the biggest names will use second-quality fruit for their LBVs in order to reduce the price of their wines and saturate the Christmas markets with rather average LBV at compellingly cheap price – don’t be fooled! Niepoort could not me any further from this.
How does it taste? First of all it has to be said that it tastes like a full blown vintage port of about 10 years of age. It has a dark ruby red colour with a strong aroma of plum, cherry and vanilla chocolate. The tannins are silky soft and the fruit is very well balanced. This is a concentrated Port wine that can be drunk now but like any fine wine can be aged for many years. We would suggest that this port can be aged for at least another 10 years and will improve year on year throughout this period and possibly beyond.
Why buy it? Niepoort LBV is unique in its class. Hand picked and still foot trodden the quality of fruit that Dirk Niepoort (and his chief winemaker Nick Delaforce) select for the LBV is always exceptional. This is the only LBV that regularly fools regular Port tasters into thinking that they are tasting vintage Port – it’s really that good.
Hand Picked from the finest available fruit.
Foot trodden – still considered the finest way to press port grapes.
Production of just 5,500 cases per year (a typical large Port house would produce on or around 100,000 cases).
Delicious now and will age and improve in the bottle for many years.
What to enjoy it with? Niepoort LBV can be enjoyed with all manner of the traditional dishes regularly suggested by port houses. You should also consider it with pepper steak, soft blue cheeses and even dark chocolate. Though perhaps Niepoort LBV is best enjoyed after a few hours enduring the elements of British winter!
“Niepoort is to vintage port what Krug is to Champagne. They are both small houses in a world dominated by big competitors, but they are producing outstanding wines that very few can match” James Suckling, Wine Spectator Magazine.