TN: 1999 Niepoort Douro Redoma

1999 Niepoort Douro Redoma - a dry red produced by a Port house, that had been sitting in my cellar for the last 20 or so years waiting for me to get around to trying it. Still quite dark and showing some nice dark fruit (plum? cherry?) and chocolate notes and very good length - clean, dry finish with some coffee notes developing with time. Made me wish I had bought case. Current vintages available in the $70 range but I might not live long enough to see it reach this stage of development.

I tried to decide what I would have made of it if I were tasting blind. I doubt that I'd go to Portugal (might have when it was younger) but the use of French oak steers one away from that, as does the elegant finish.

Made from various Portuguese varietals - not sure what the blend back then was, but a recent release is Tinta amarela 40 %, Touriga Franca 30 %, Tinta roriz 20 %, Rufete (Tinta Pinheira) 10 %

[Jenise]

Sounds delightful. So many great Portugese wines are made that never show up in my neck of the woods. Just the cheap stuff.

Some 10+ years ago, I had an interesting experience around a bottle of Redoma, 1995 I think. My bottle purchased from a by then out of business wine merchant in the UK showed a fault, bad reduction IIRC. I got in touch with the Niepoort organisation by Email and was surprised by how friendly and concerned about my problem they were. They said that the vintage had been early days for Redoma and that their production technique had yet to settle down, offered replacements and tips for handling reduction (I think it was decanting through a copper coin?). As I only had one other bottle, I did not take them up on the offer to get a replacement all the way from Portugal, but retain an appreciative memory of their approach to this little problem and always reach for Niepoort when I see it, which is rarely here in France.

Dirk, who is a character, used to show at the Vancouver wine event and is an interesting guy. They made a Clos de Crappe, which was very unusual - see https://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/por ... kable-wine

He has apparently left the family firm due to disagreements.

The other guy I used to enjoy was Cristiano van Zeller who also makes some interesting Ports - his Quinta do Vale Dona Maria wines are worth keeping an eye out for.