1977 Niepoort

[RonnieRoots]

Tasted at the July 2 1977 horizontal.

Another light port, but this shows some beautiful red tones next to a slightly brown bricking. The nose is fresh, but not alcoholic. Spciy, with tobacco and cedar. Incredibly thick mouthfeel, sweet, with strawberries, some subtle darker fruit and dark spices. Complex and lovely, with a warm, if slightly hollow finish. A joy to drink. My guess: Niepoort. 94 points.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Deep centre, transparent, but a lovely rich polished mahogany. Spicy nose, sweet redcurrants and a fabulous tone that Ronnie identified as cedar wood. Sweet and very thick and glycerolic in texture. Showing distinct secondary flavours with golden raisins mixed with the redcurrants and a massive complexity in the mouth. Some tannins still show at the start of the aftertaste, which has a wonderful and long length. Just a fabulous wine for drinking today, but don't leave them too long. 93/100.

[Harve]

Hello. I am a new member of the forum. I have the good fortune to have purchased a case of Niepoort 1977 Vintage back in about 1982. I have kept it in pristine condition (I hope) and am looking forward to sampling or indeed finishing it on some auspicious occasion to be decided.

I sent an email to the Niepoort House and got a great reply from Dirk himself. He said "It is one of (if not the best) the best ports of the vintage. It is slowly getting to the point but it is still about 10 to 15 years away from perfection."

I hope to report back in 10 or 15 years - maybe a retirement posting!

[Alex Bridgeman]

Welcome Harve, I hope your post is the first of many

I don't think that the bottle we had in early July was a bottle which had been bought early and stored in pristine conditions. I suspect that it had been stored well, but may have been stored somewhere warmer than would be perfect.

On the other hand, your bottles will likely have developed more slowly than the one I tried and so will still need more time to reach full maturity.

But when will you decide to open the first one to check on them...

[RonnieRoots]

To make searching easier, I've copy/pasted LadyR's tasting notes of this port, as originally posted here:

Niepoort ‘77
Rusty brown-red colour, extremely thick when poored in the glass, almost like syrup. Strong tones of cooked veggies almost going to barnyard smell, but quickly taken over by fresh notes of citrus, cedar, tobacco, leather and liquorice, with a good bitterness in the finish. This is a big, thick bodied, mouthfilling port, hence very smooth with silky tannins and relatively fresh. Simply delicious.
95 pts