Fonseca and Niepoort - 19th January 2027
Posted: 10:50 Mon 05 Jan 2026
- Date : 19th January 2027 at the Boot & Flogger
- What : Fonseca + Niepoort dual vertical 1945-1977 (the vintages when both declared)
- Bottles:
Fonseca: 45, 55, 60, 63, 66, 70(magnum), 75, 77
Niepoort: 45, 55, 60, 63, 66, 70(dumpy)+70(tall), 75, 77
In 2012 I organised a "Fonseca vs Warre" tasting, being 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.
The date has now been set as 19th January 2027, with Daniel Niepoort and David Guimaraens joining us as guests for the evening. Based on the bottles offered, the range of vintages/bottles will be as shown above, being the vintages in the range of 1945 to 1977 for which both producers declared (45, 55, 60, 63, 66, 70, 75, and 77). Additionally, since there are two particularly different bottles of Niepoort 1970 (dumpy and tall) both will be included; and therefore the Fonseca 1970 will be from magnum.
The attendee list has been set with priority given based on the bottles offered (as was stated in original post) to ensure that we could have all desired vintages, and then offering and signing order. With some people providing very old bottles, and others bringing multiple bottles, there is expected to be some cost adjustments to be sorted later. The result is as follows:
Attendees:
- What : Fonseca + Niepoort dual vertical 1945-1977 (the vintages when both declared)
- Bottles:
Fonseca: 45, 55, 60, 63, 66, 70(magnum), 75, 77
Niepoort: 45, 55, 60, 63, 66, 70(dumpy)+70(tall), 75, 77
In 2012 I organised a "Fonseca vs Warre" tasting, being 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.
The date has now been set as 19th January 2027, with Daniel Niepoort and David Guimaraens joining us as guests for the evening. Based on the bottles offered, the range of vintages/bottles will be as shown above, being the vintages in the range of 1945 to 1977 for which both producers declared (45, 55, 60, 63, 66, 70, 75, and 77). Additionally, since there are two particularly different bottles of Niepoort 1970 (dumpy and tall) both will be included; and therefore the Fonseca 1970 will be from magnum.
The attendee list has been set with priority given based on the bottles offered (as was stated in original post) to ensure that we could have all desired vintages, and then offering and signing order. With some people providing very old bottles, and others bringing multiple bottles, there is expected to be some cost adjustments to be sorted later. The result is as follows:
Attendees:
- Phil W. - Ni70(dumpy), F77*
- Daniel N. (Guest) - Ni55
- David G. (Guest)
- Tony C. - Ni45
- Charles R. - Ni70(tall), F66*
- Mike M. - F70(mag)
- Alex B. - F45
- Martin C. - F55
- Ian J. - Ni60
- Neil C. - Ni75
- Harry H. - Ni66, F75
- Julian W. - F60
- Cliff M. - Ni63, Ni77*
- Nigel M. - F63
- John F.
- Ralph
- Axel P.
- George G.
- Michael M.
- Christopher G.
