Quo Vadis Niepoort?

Quo Vadis Niepoort?

Dirk Niepoort was at the forefront of the great Portuguese wine revolution of the 1990s. The Redoma wines are an icon of that decade. And at the beginning of the new century, to the great gaiety of the oenophiles, behold the Batuta and the Vertente arise. The Batuta, a wine that since the first harvest (1999), was placed on the pedestal of the top wines of the Douro and Portugal. The Vertente, a “current” wine too good. And a little later Charme appears, one of the few Burgundian wines of our country, although obtained at the expense of an “oenological artifice”. Also a top wine. Then Robustus …
Fantastic wines. In such a way that I have heard many times say to my friends, something like: “I only drink Niepoort wines …”. Although this perspective a bit reductive, in a way I understood it.
And so it was for some years …
Until Dirk Niepport began to make several “derivations” … Several projects, several partnerships, in different areas of Portugal, Spain, Austria, South Africa, and I know where more …
And behold, the Omlet arise, the Ultreias, the ADF, the Carnuntum, the Navazos, the Quinta de Baixo, the Concisos, etc …
Coincidence or maybe not, the truth is that the general quality of the wines has changed … for worse … At the moment, the wines of Dirk, can not do justice to the first ones we spoke about. What happened? Too many projects? Oenological dispersion? …
But the biggest disappointment came during a blind wine tasting, where it was found that one of the wines was a new top of the range Niepoort. Almost unanimously it was considered as a wine of the range of 20 euros … We were all gawked when it was revealed that after all it was a wine that cost more than 100 …
I do not know what is happening. But the deep respect and admiration I feel for this unique figure in our oenology, makes you have the strong desire that everything returns to “normality” as soon as possible. It is that, as one of my friends says: “A Man may hesitate … but he must not fall …”.

P. F. 2017