Niepoort Garrafeiras

[Axel P]

is a Port, we need to pay more attention to.

http://worldofport.de/Wein/Wein15-04%20EN.html

Axel

[Andy Velebil]

Yes, but there is a major issue for these types of Ports. They age at a glacial pace and one needs huge amounts of storage space and lots of very expensive large glass containers to hold them all in. Then once bottled one generally leaves them in bottle for some period of time before releasing them.

One can assume that is why very few producers are still actively making them on a commercial scale.

[djewesbury]

I agree. And then they reach the market at not even a trickle. It's all very well paying attention to these, but I've never drunk one except when I've been in Dirk's company in Vila Nova de Gaia or the Douro. These could be Niepoort's answer to the SuperColheitas / Single Harvest Tawnies - release them and we'll buy them! But that isn't how Niepoort marketing works...

[LGTrotter]

It is impossible to see how any commercial enterprise could justify the difficulties of producing such wines. Which is why it is important to support those companies, whether due to inertia or some less easily quantified reason, who continue to produce them. I do not care for these wines but I am glad they are still being made. I am less sure about those companies who take the short cut of buying up somebody else's wine and selling it as if they are the people who were far sighted and patient enough to put aside these stocks. Madeira has similar difficulties but continues to offer 19th century wines at substantially less than the recent releases from the Douro. I suppose they have had more practice.

[djewesbury]

I agree that there is no commercial logic to making Garrafeira. But if you've got a lodge full of various stocks of it, why wouldn't you market the hell out of the weird, demijohn-aged beauties?

Don't try and kick off the Taylor-Krohn debate again, everyone has stated their opinions at least thrice already.

[mosesbotbol]

I've had 4-5 different vintages of Niepoort's Garrafeira and they are truly wonderful wines. Even though there is not much financial sense to make Garrafeira, I think many producers would be well served by creating them. They are special bottles that add legend to the legacy. If at a minimum, make them for those who'd really appreciate them. Port houses should cater more to the devoted as they bang the drum for their favorites quite loud and for free.

[Andy Velebil]

Playing devils advocate in this discussion; I will say I don't really see the point of these from a business stand point. It's basically a 7 year old tawny, placed into a large format bottle, then transferred many years later to a smaller bottle. Why not simply transfer to a smaller bottle from the get go, age for shorter to offset the smaller bottle size, then release it. It would save a ton of time, money, and take up far less space overall.

[LGTrotter]

Playing devils advocate in this discussion; I will say I don't really see the point of these from a business stand point. It's basically a 7 year old tawny, placed into a large format bottle, then transferred many years later to a smaller bottle. Why not simply transfer to a smaller bottle from the get go, age for shorter to offset the smaller bottle size, then release it. It would save a ton of time, money, and take up far less space overall.

Because, as Silas Weir Mitchell says (of madeira admittedly) 'it improves in it's own company, as greatness is apt to do', going on to say that it was never meant to be retailed. He was referring to the practice of putting it into 5 gallon demijohns for decades. Presumably the idea is the same for this port. To play devil's advocate I wonder why port doesn't stick to what it does best (vintage port) and let madeira get on with what it does best; keeping preposterously old vintages in barrels and demijohns until it's ready about 100 years later.