Ports and Vintage Ports

Ports and Vintage Ports

We are particularly pleased to offer Niepoort Ports both vintage and non-vintage, who we believe to be the BEST Port House in terms of Quality and Value for money. 

We also have some stocks of other older Vintage Ports.

As Vintage Port ages it undergoes a metamorphosis, shedding the deep red colour of its youth, adopting golden and tawny hues instead. The wine's structure softens and its aromas meld and multiply in complexity. The resultant liquid has a lovely mellow sweetness, rich round texture and enduring flavours, reminiscent of ripe figs, dates or liquid honey

Points to Consider 

While fabulous to drink, the oldest of these are wines that aren't always beautiful to behold - labels may be decomposing or completely absent, but here beauty is in the taste buds of the imbiber! Fortunately Port's high alcohol and sweetness preserve these wines, so even those with some ullage will provide lovely drinking. 

Up to and including the 1970 vintage, Port was frequently shipped in barrels (pipes) by British Merchants and bottled here. Many of our wines are UK Bottled. While purists may pay more for "Oporto Bottled" wines it can be argued that the pipes carefully selected for shipping by UK Merchants were often the pick of the vintage - certainly they don't deserve to be discounted

Vintage Ratings

The star ratings are taken from Michael Broadbent MW's Great Vintage Wine Book.

1963 - beautiful wines with intense fruit that have proved extremely age-worthy.

1966 - wines with concentrated fruit and firm structure, initially overshadowed by 1963.

****(*) 1970 - an underrated vintage of classic wines that have aged well and frequently produce wonderful surprises.

1977 - tannic, almost ageless wines that have softened slowly, gaining great complexity in the process.