Fonseca vs Niepoort - 6th October 2026
Posted: 10:50 Mon 05 Jan 2026
Details to be confirmed, but the rough plan is as follows:
- Date : 6th October 2026 at the Boot & Flogger, assuming they have availability that day.
- What : Fonseca vs Niepoort dual vertical
- Years : TBD, but expected to be at least 55-77 (55, 60, 63, 66, 70, 75, 77)
In 2012 I organised a tasting of Fonseca vs Warre, a '55-'85 double-vertical. While some thought Fonseca might run away with it, it was much closer than many expected and I thoroughly enjoyed comparing the mature ports of two of my favourite producers across very good years.
More than a decade on, and following creation of "the book", I looked back at these vintages and found that across the 55-77 range in particular, Niepoort and Fonseca seem to take most of the top spots for me - so I thought it would be fun to revisit the double-vertical idea with these two producers across a range of mature vintages.
A large number of us will have many of the '60-'77 Fonseca vintages; I suspect much less availability of pre-'70 Niepoort. Addition of older vintages may be unlikely, as prior to '55 I believe the previous vintages fully declared by both would be '45 and then '27. To ensure we have bottle-pairs, priority will be given to people offering bottles that allow us to include additional vintages/pairs in this range or earlier (e.g. if you're the only person with a Niepoort '66 then you're prioritised). Otherwise bottles will generally be selected looking for best-condition.
Dependent on numbers, and assuming no addition of earlier vintages, I may also consider the following:
- We could add later vintages (80, 83, 85 were declared by both) but assuming we have all of the 55-77 from both producers above then we already have 14 bottles.
- We could allow both dumpy and standard-bottled Niepoort '70, but that might arguably give an unfair advantage (two bottles vs one for Ni vs F).
- We could potentially allow magnums if we had them for both vintages (either in addition, or instead of, standard bottle); likely just 70 & 77 if at all.
Personally my favoured option would be the addition of the magnums (rather than the younger vintages) but this all depends on what we have between us.
Let me know if interested, and what you could offer (by PM/email or post as you prefer).
- Date : 6th October 2026 at the Boot & Flogger, assuming they have availability that day.
- What : Fonseca vs Niepoort dual vertical
- Years : TBD, but expected to be at least 55-77 (55, 60, 63, 66, 70, 75, 77)
In 2012 I organised a tasting of Fonseca vs Warre, a '55-'85 double-vertical. While some thought Fonseca might run away with it, it was much closer than many expected and I thoroughly enjoyed comparing the mature ports of two of my favourite producers across very good years.
More than a decade on, and following creation of "the book", I looked back at these vintages and found that across the 55-77 range in particular, Niepoort and Fonseca seem to take most of the top spots for me - so I thought it would be fun to revisit the double-vertical idea with these two producers across a range of mature vintages.
A large number of us will have many of the '60-'77 Fonseca vintages; I suspect much less availability of pre-'70 Niepoort. Addition of older vintages may be unlikely, as prior to '55 I believe the previous vintages fully declared by both would be '45 and then '27. To ensure we have bottle-pairs, priority will be given to people offering bottles that allow us to include additional vintages/pairs in this range or earlier (e.g. if you're the only person with a Niepoort '66 then you're prioritised). Otherwise bottles will generally be selected looking for best-condition.
Dependent on numbers, and assuming no addition of earlier vintages, I may also consider the following:
- We could add later vintages (80, 83, 85 were declared by both) but assuming we have all of the 55-77 from both producers above then we already have 14 bottles.
- We could allow both dumpy and standard-bottled Niepoort '70, but that might arguably give an unfair advantage (two bottles vs one for Ni vs F).
- We could potentially allow magnums if we had them for both vintages (either in addition, or instead of, standard bottle); likely just 70 & 77 if at all.
Personally my favoured option would be the addition of the magnums (rather than the younger vintages) but this all depends on what we have between us.
Let me know if interested, and what you could offer (by PM/email or post as you prefer).
