Producer Profile 8: Niepoort — Red Fortified Wines

  • Ruby Port is aged in bulk for 2 or 3 years and bottled young to retain the deep ruby colour and the strong, pleasant heat from alcohol
  • Premium Ruby Port is deeper in colour and may be bottled as Reserva.
  • Tawny Port is a wood aged Port, blended from a variety of years and made from usually lighter-coloured parcels of fruit. True tawny gets its colour from extended wood ageing so that the colour becomes an amber-brown or tawny hue.
  • Aged Tawny Port must be aged in wood for 6 or more years giving it a silkier texture and greater depth.
  • Colheita Port is best described as a ‘Vintage Tawny’ and has the same characteristics of a tawny as well as of the vintage it was made from. The minimum age is 7 years, although many are much older.
  • Garrafeira Port is a vintage dated port that has been stored in 5 or 10 L glass demi-johns. Aged for a minimum of 7 years, it has impressive depth of fruit plus the silkiness of a tawny.
  • Single-quinta Port is a vintage port often produced in good but not great years and aged for 2 or 3 years. Often they are not released until they are ready to drink.
  • Late Bottled Vintage or LBV is a vintage port that has been bottled 4-6 years after harvest. Wines in this category that are unfined and unfiltered and have been bottle-aged for 2-3 years share a lot of the power of a vintage port, although it is often made in ‘undeclared’ years.
  • Vintage Port is perhaps the most famous style. It is made in declared vintages where the quality is truly outstanding. This usually happens around 3 times in a decade. Aged for 2-3 years in pipes, 550 L barrels, it is the Port with the greatest power and longevity.