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While I was doing my usual shopping today, I decided to further stock up on Niepoort's 2011 LBV, so I put two bottles into the trolley. At home I was surprised to find that one bottle was bottled in 2015 (like the other bottles that I have) and one in 2016.
So I wonder
a) if different bottling years of the same wine are not unusual for LBVs in general or Niepoort in particular (Andy will probably say that everything is possible in the Douro )
b) which bottling date is "better". Four years might keep the wine fresher and overall prolong it's durability while five years might make it more approachable earlier.

Any thoughts, gentlemen?

Anything we say would be speculative---you have the means to procure empirical evidence.

I wonder what Dirk would say....assume this was done before his departure.

Anything is possible in the Douro

Dirk hasn't gone anywhere

Perhaps they got more orders for the 2011 and had to come up with another bottling run to fill the orders.


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It's not the first time Niepoort has done this, I think it was 2005 that had different bottling dates as well. Probably something to do with demand and limited capacity of the bottling line.

I don't think it's usual to have different bottling years for an LBV but two things come to mind.

(1) Perhaps Dirk likes to bottle at the end of December / beginning of January

(2) Perhaps Dirk is experimenting to see how long he likes to leave the wine in wood before bottling

But this is pure speculation on my part.