Niepoort 2009 Vintage Port is another brilliant Vintage for Niepoort Vinhos. Niepoort is a family company now in its fifth generation and presently managed by Dirk Niepoort. Despite being the second smallest shippers in the trade they are second to none in quality. Already famous for their classic tawny ports, they have now joined the ranks of the great producers of Vintage Port. “Niepoort is to Vintage Port what Krug is to Champagne. They are both small houses in a world dominated by large competitors but they are producing outstanding wines which very few can match.” (James Suckling, Vintage Port). Vintage Port must be bottled within two years of the harvest date and be 100 per cent wine from that harvest. Niepoort Vintage Port 2009 has all the ingredients of a classic Vintage year – power and elegance. There were low yields combined with perfect maturation of the grapes, great concentration and on top of that great acidity; it was pretty clear from early on in the vintage it would be a great one. All of the fruit for this wine comes from the Cima Corgo region of the Douro and the youngest vineyard harvest for the blend was over 80 years old. It is a typical Douro blend of Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, Tinta Francisca, Tinta Amarela, Sousão and others, including Touriga Nacional. This vintage continues Niepoort’s tradition to create balanced Ports with great concentration but finesse and elegance. All of the parcels of fruit for the Niepoort 2009 Vintage Port were trodden by foot in circular stone lagares at Niepoort’s Port winery in Vale de Mendiz. In a very good vintage, such as this, whole bunches are vinified without de-stemming. The individual components are racked soon after harvest and then aged in “toneis” in the Douro over the winter prior to moving the barrels down to Vila Nova de Gaia in March 2010. Here the wine was blended and again left to rest in “toneis” until the final blend was bottled at the Niepoort lodges in May 2011.
