Niepoort Vintage 'Bioma' 2016

niepoort-vinhos.com "By introducing another premium Vintage Port to the Niepoort portfolio, Bioma “Vinha Velha” provides us with the opportunity to create, or re-create, a style of Vintage Port which not only respects the terroir, but also harks back to the golden age of Port. Bioma “Vinha Velha” is a single vineyard Vintage Port, rather than a single Quinta wine. The “Vinha Velha” refers to the extraordinary age of the vines most exceeding the age of 80 years. The intention is to offer, in very small quantities, a style of Vintage Port which is more akin to the very best English-bottled Vintage Ports of 1970 and before. The exceptional quality of fruit from the very old vines appears to express its sense of place quite wonderfully when we apply the ‘logic’ of the past. After a considerably wet and relatively cool growing season up until July, it appeared that the harvest would be very late, however the end of July and the month of August in the Douro were dry and hot, allowing the ripening process to catch up. In Vale de Mendiz, some blocks were harvested early, giving more acid-driven wines. After the heavy rainfall on 13 September, which forced us to pause the harvest, fully ripe vineyard blocks were harvested. The whole grape bunches were foot-trodden at our Port winemaking facility in Vale de Mendiz. After being fortified with brandy, the Port was left to settle over the winter. In the spring, the wine was transferred to a very cool part of the winery at Quinta de Nápoles and racked into pipas (the traditional 550L casks). By maturing this Port in pipas in a cool cellar in the Douro instead of in large vats in Gaia and bottling the Bioma “Vinha Velha” in the third year after the harvest, we are able to produce an exceptionally complex wine. Interestingly, this is the way it used to be made in the “good old days” when wines were shipped to England in pipas, and bottled later. A concentrated, almost dark purple colour, with aromas of black pepper, spice and dark fruits such as plums and blackberries. Initially the palate is fresh with superb acidity and a wonderful expression of dark fruits, but follows through to a bold tannic mid-palate and finish, the sweetness and fruit very much dominated by tannin on the finish. This is a Port wine suitable for long cellaring.