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Another odd bottle, again the only one I own, and also again my first encounter with the wine.

Decanted 5pm, little bit pale for it's age, average sediment. Unusually, the cork not only gives the year of bottling, but also the month - Dec '93

Little bit of bottle stink, some fruit on the nose, but it seems a bit stale - there's something else there that I can't quite identify.

First sip, very uncomposed, with a fiery kick. Something a bit odd about this one, and not terribly encouraging at this point.

See how it evolves..

- More anon

Tom

D + 3 hours, the wine was much improved, but the slightly odd nose continued to spoil the party.

D + 7 hours, a real transformation, cheekily youthful, fresh and fruity, the odd nose having completely blown away.

D + 27 hours, the wine has slightly closed down on me now, and has also darkened. It's immaturity is now more noticeable. Besides that, only a little fire spoils the experiance.

The wine reminds me now of the Niepoort '70 which I had with Dirk - that bottle was so youthful, I actually guessed it to be the '91 - rather to my embarassment..

After a very unpromising start, this is now a wine I would like to acquire more of.

To score..

Well for immediate gratification (provided you give it time to lose its evil spirits..) this is a better than average wine, but youth and a little fire count against, so a 6.

Where's it going - more to offer certainly, but perhaps not a huge amount.

So score 6-7

Maybe next year I'll be brave enough to tackle the Ni92 - I have an un-prised case of them..

Tom

Thanks, Tom, so I will definitely give the younger Niepoorts 6 hrs plus decanting time for the Niepoort event in Germany, Nov 27th.

Axel