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Perfect evening. Lineup was all Niepoort Vintage Ports between 2007 (Niepoort and Pisca) until 1963 with the exception of 1966 and 1975. Dirk Niepoort was there to explain the background of the individual years and suggested some pairs to compare.

Summary: Outstanding evening, outstanding ports. Best Port 1970 out of a bulky bottle. Surprise of the evening: 1987.

A very special thanks to Julian for the placemats.

Further TNs in the TN-section.

Axel

I've only had the 87 once, when Dirk served it to me blind. I guessed it was much younger than what it was, and what a solid bottle.

From what I've been told almost all the 1970's were bottled in those old-style squat bottles. However, there was a very small amount bottled in regular shaped 750's that have a huge amount of wax over the top.

Thanks for posting all those TNs, Axel. Here are some links...

2007
2007 Pisca
2005
2003
2000
1997
1994
1992
1991
1987
1985
1983
1982
1980
1978
1977
1970
1963
1863 Colhieta

What a great tasting. The 1970 is indeed a wonderful port. I'm not surprised to hear about the 1987, I've had it a couple of times and it is always solid. I'm quite happy that I recently managed to secure a case at a good price. Also good to read that the 1994 seems to be coming around, it was very odd (probably very much closed) when I last tasted it. And that colheita... wow!

I was very surprised by the very high standard of all ports. Even the ports from smaller vintages were perfect.

A memorable and instructive tasting with Dirk v/d N., who was rather less chirpy than at previous tastings, but who gave very many interesting insights.
The vintage highlights? Behind the '70 (dumpy bottling), the stars of the vertical IMO were, the 87, the 91, the 63 and the 78.
And of course - the 1863 colheita! That was worth the drive to Leverkusen on its own.
Cheers, victor