ThePortForum.com

I was lucky enough to be recommended this by a sommelier a few years ago and managed to secure 12 bottles from FRW. It has become almort impossible to buy this vintage now and i'm thinking about starting to crack a few open .. Has anyone had any experience of this wine?

I've not had the '99, but did have a 2001 this summer. It was jsut starting to drink great and showing some wonderful secondary nuainces.

I've had the 99 2 times already. The last time was around october of last year for my brother's birthday. I unfortunately have only 1 bottle left.

For me it is similar in taste to 96, but with more tannins. It is evolving well, tannins are a bit square, flavours of field berries, some plums, exoting wood are showing, good lenght and balance. Lacking depth compare to the new releases since 2001, a solid 16-16.5/20 I'd say.

I'll keep my last bottle for 2010-2012 to experiement and I'd it will still be alive. With 12 bottles you can probably open 1-2 every year and see how it goes.

Well..i cracked open a bottle of this yesterday whilst a little worse for wear ..had a good friend and fellow food and wine enthusiast over for lunch and got carried away (he brought round a bottle of Pape-Clement 1998 for me! )..anyway when first decanted this proved to have quite an explosive bouquet as one would hope from Niepoort,on the palate it was closed and rather hot at first with tight tannins.
Unfortunately due to the type of day I was havingthis only got an hour to breathe
BUT...lovely,after the hour it had really opened up,a real firecracker in the mouth-thick rich purple wine with slow thick legs- blackcurrant,raspberry and cherry the notable fruits whilst having a firmer undertone tobacco and a bit of liquorice. Quite porty actually!
I wish i had had the time to leave this in the decanter and taste it at intervals over 24 hours..maybe the next time!
Sorry if this was a poor tasting note but this is my first effort!