1952 Niepoort Garrafeira (bottled 1987)

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
Forum rules
Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
Post Reply
User avatar
RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

1952 Niepoort Garrafeira (bottled 1987)

Post by RonnieRoots »

A great Christmas treat. On decanting, this has some heat and a very distinctive aged oloroso nose, and also a silty sherry characteristic on the palate. With 2 to 3 hours in the decanter, the heat and sherry aromas blow off. The colour transformed from lightish tawny to tawny with a clear red hue. Wonderful light and fresh nose, giving some citrus, star aniseed and still some light silty aromas. Very delicate on the palate, again with some fresh and semi-dried citrus, almonds, and a wonderful core of light red fruit (rose hip and fresh strawberries). Some exotic spices and milk chocolate on the otherwise dry (and slightly short) finish. Delicate, frail and very special. A well deserved 93 points at this stage.

Another sip was tasted the next morning. The red fruit has now faded, and it's much more like a good colheita now. Still very fresh with lovely citrus. The last bit tasted in the evening was tired, over the hill and bordering on simple. If you are lucky enough to have a bottle of this, drink it within a couple of hours after decanting
User avatar
DRT
Fonseca 1966
Posts: 15779
Joined: 23:51 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Chesterfield, UK
Contact:

Re: 1952 Niepoort Garrafeira Port

Post by DRT »

Ronnie,

When was this "decanted" into 750ml bottles? I am surprised that this wine fell apart so quickly after opening as I would have expected it to have the staying power of an aged tawny or colhieta. That said, I have never tasted a garrafeira :roll: :cry:

Derek
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
User avatar
RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

Re: 1952 Niepoort Garrafeira Port

Post by RonnieRoots »

I believe it was 1987, but I'll check and let you know for sure.

Don't forget that Garrafeira is in fact bottle aged, albeit quite large bottles. 1952 wasn't of course a blockbuster of a year, and in a sense this was quite a fragile port. I've tasted it once before, and it behaved quite the same then. I can imagine that a younger Garrafeira has some more lasting power, but still, I wouldn't leave it for days.
Post Reply