This thread has become popular all of a sudden. Let's try to get some things straight here:
[quote="SD]Niepoort is trying something new.[/quote]
I don't think they are. These aren't commercial releases by Niepoort, and certainly not something they are making these days.
DRT wrote:I emailed and sent a picture of these bottles to Niepoort today and their conclusion is that they are fake!!!!
Andy V wrote:We think alike, as I to sent Dirk an email late last night about these
Andy, what did Dirk say?
Now, why would someone produce fakes like this? If it's an attempt to sell fake VP it's a job bad done. 1984 and 1990 both weren't declared, and have no auction value to speak of. Niepoort, while very much loved by conaisseurs, is not a house that stands very high on the auction ladder, certainly not 15-20 years ago, when the focus was even more on the classic producers than it is now. If you're doing this kind of stuff, it would make much more sense to print a "Nacional 1963" label than a "Niepoort 1984" one, now wouldn't it?
uncle tom wrote:If the original photo is clear enough to read the guarantee number on one of the bottles, the IVDP should be able to tell you what they really are..
I don't have any other pictures than this.
SushiNorth wrote:Now I know why i've been staring at these so long. I've never seen a Niepoort with a printed label.
DRT wrote:2. I have never seen a Niepoort port with anything other than a stenciled label.
Niepoort has definitely used printed labels in the past. I have an empty bottle of 1966 with a printed label, which BTW also is in a 'regular' port bottle, not the one Niepoort usually uses. Garrafeiras always have printed labels. Nowadays the labels of Junior Tinto and Senior Tawny are also printed.
DRT wrote:3. I don't recognise the logo on these labels as belonging to Niepoort
It does. I have an old Niepoort brochure that carries the same logo (it's in Utrecht, so can't post pictures unfortunately). They also used to use this logo for bottles of barrel samples (although the labels were slightly different). Anybody who has ever been to the Niepoort lodge will recognise the small tasting room, that's stacked with sample bottles. These have the same logo on them.
SushiNorth" wrote:The [auction house, RR] website, btw, listed some of those bottles as LBV, some without designation. They all sold very high for being fakes.
The LBV's were in a different lot and were designated as such. The only ones without designation were in this lot. The LBV's sold for a price that's not bad for LBV's of that age (and from a producer whose LBV's are known to age very well).
I don't think they are fakes. I just don't see the reason. Given that these bottles were offered in an auction with an extreme high number of Niepoort ports (lots of 1977, 1975 and 1978), I think that an importer sold of old stock. These bottles can easily have been something that Niepoort sent to them for one reason or another. Maybe to get some feedback on the quality of the vintage, or perhaps they were meant as a specific bottling for some occasion. We can be sure that it's not something that was ever put into the market as a "Niepoort product", but I do believe this is an actual Niepoort port.