Mixed Case Niepoort Vinhos
MIXED CASE : NIEPOORT VINHOS 4
Each case includes 2 bottles of these wines:
NAT'Cool! Branco 2022, Vinho Verde. $25 / 1L
NAT’Cool is Dirk Niepoort's line of wines that are low-intervention, low-alcohol, available only in a 1L format, affordable, and highly smashable. This cloudy pét-nat ish Vinho Verde, comes from the sub-region of Lousada, and is a mix of Azal, Arinto, Avesso, Trajadura, and Loureiro, and vines 25-30 years. After beginning ferment in stainless, it was bottled with a few grams RS, so it could continue to percolate in the bottle, affording it a gentle spritz. With a new colour blocked label for 2022, this is brisk and dry, with light elderflower, lemon, pear skin, meadow grass skipping along the slight 11 degree palate, lingering with gentle astringency. Very natty, and very Nat'Cool!
Diálogo Branco 2021, Douro Valley. $22
This youthful white may show a Canadian-themed comic on the label, but make no mistake, this is a serious wine, from one of the world's top winemakers, Dirk Niepoort. From schistous, mica-flecked vineyards on the right bank of the Douro, between 550-700m, this blend of indigenous Portuguese white grapes is native fermented in a split between stainless and older French barriques (30 percent), with no MLF, and remains there for eight months. The blend is 20-50 year old Rabigato, Códega do Larinho, Gouveio, Dona Branca, Viosinho, Biical and others. This year's edition is quite reductive at present, with an earthy, leesy, stony underlay bedding green apple, lemon, green fig, finishing with a lingering salinity.
Diálogo Tinto 2021, Douro Valley. $22
This youthful red may show a (Canadian themed!) comic on the label, but make no mistake, this is a serious wine, from one of the world's top winemakers, Dirk Niepoort. This is a blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela from the Cima Corgo's schistous soils, and vines up to 40 years in age. This was native fermented in stainless, and aged in a mix of stainless and oak for 6 months. Fresh and fragrant, with black raspberry, cherry, plum filling a juicy core. Wrapped with slight, sticky tannins, and buoyed by bright acidity, this friendly, smart red is primed for drinking now, all at a welcome 12.5%.
NAT'Cool! Primata 2021, Douro Valley. $29 / 1L
One of the newest NAT'Cool! in the range, Primata is the result of Dirk Niepoort giving his cellar master Luís Pedro a push to make his own wine in 2016. Half the blend is Touriga Nacional grapes, with the rest a mix of old vine Tinta Amarela, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, all from vineyards at 600m in the Douro Valley's Tabuaço region. Whole bunch and foot-trodden, this was macerated and native fermented in lagares before being pressed into stainless, for a 6 month rest. This opens with a puff of reduction, before a smooth palate of candle wax, ripe strawberries, rhubarb, brightened with a cranberry acidity. Tannins are sticky, taking this to a lightly spiced finish. Chill down and enjoy this lighter red now.
NAT'Cool! Tinto 2021, Bairrada. $26 / 1L
This lighter, shining red is 40-100 year old Baga vines from the limestone laced, clay soils of Bairrada. This was native fermented and aged in stainless, to preserve the purity of fruit. Light and lifted, this finessed red soars with wild strawberry, wild raspberry, perfumed plum, thorny rockrose, hugged with fine, sticky tannins, and seasoned with a dusting of pink pepper. So smashable, take this with a light chill, liberally.
Vertente Tinto 2019, Douro Valley. $34
Vertente means aspect or hillside, well named for the vineyards of the Douro. 30-60 year old vines are sourced from Quinta de Nápoles, and Vale do Pinhão, with a traditional blend of several grape varieties predominantly based on Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Rufete, and Tinta Amarela. After a native ferment in stainless, this was aged in French oak for 22 months. Bright and alive with rockrose, fragrant plum, and thorny wild blackberry, this is gripped with those finely structural schistous tannins of the Douro, leading this long on the palate to a lightly peppery finish. In beautiful harmony now, and will be with time in your cellar.
Price:
12 bottles for $345 + HST, including delivery in GTA, and most larger cities in Ontario.
*prices outside of main cities may incur additional delivery charges.
Estimated delivery time is 3-10 business days.
Please note we cannot process wine orders outside of Ontario. Wine can only be ordered from, and shipped to, an address in Ontario.
If one had to pick the winemaker that has had the greatest impact on not only Douro wines, but Portuguese wines in general, it would be Dirk Niepoort. Easily one of the world’s top winemakers, Dirk’s insight extends beyond soils, grapes and blends, and into humans, predicting and driving the wines that today’s wine lovers, of all ages and backgrounds, are interested in drinking.
While upholding his family’s history in Port wine, dating back to 1842, this fifth generation Niepoort has led the path for future generations to follow in both dry and Port wines. Independent, low-interventionist winemaking (biodynamic practices since 2012), earlier picking times, and clever marketing has created fresh wines both inside and outside of the bottle. There is little Dirk’s ceaseless mind hasn’t touched: natural, sparkling, and highly experimental wine, the latter category being labelled either as ‘undrinkable’, or ‘incredible’ by well-known wine critics. The soft-spoken Dirk deftly combines tradition with innovation, equally using granite lagares and ancient autochthonous grapes alongside sharp social media, alliances with artists, and collaborations with other winemakers around the world (including our own Suertes del Marqués from Tenerife), through his Niepoort Projectos projects, and the natural, smashable, NAT’Cool! wines.
