Looking far and wide: Niepoort Finos do Mundo & Big Day Tastings

Three years ago, Niepoort started to import wines for distribution in Portugal. The aim?  “Quite simple” says Dirk Niepoort – “to import wines we like” – structured, elegant, tending to austerity even.  The illustrious portfolio includes wines from Champagne R&L Legras, Schloss Gobelsburg, Soalheiro, Jean-Marc Pillot, Domaine Roulot, Telmo Rodríguez, Domaine Armand Rousseau and Fritz Haag.

Though far from unhappy if they ended up in his own collection, Niepoort is over the moon that the project has taken off and the wines are in demand. In fact, so keen is the ideologist to share its delights with his fellow countrymen and women that Niepoort hosts “Niepoort Big Day,” an annual free public tasting attended by the winemakers at Quinta de Nápoles (pictured).  He explains

“the base idea is not about selling, but more to show to normal Portuguese people what the world is doing, what great wines are being made and that Portugal is not the country making the best wines in the world – to get away a bit from the chauvinist and show great wines don’t have to be big sweet and alcoholic.” 
And it was a two way street.  I arrived in the Douro for the Big Day with Eric Rousseau and Jean-Marc Roulot from Burgundy, both of whom gasped appreciatively as the Douro’s majestic terraced vineyards hoved into view.

Unsurprisingly, with such a star line up of wines and attending winemakers, the event attracted some 400 people so it was great to have a sneak preview at a press “Finos do Mundo” tasting the previous day.  My highlights?  Where to start.  Actually the beginning is a good place – we kicked off with a vertical of Niepoort Colheita Ports, the youngest from 1937, the oldest an 1863 (reported in full here). 

Otherwise, with their magical combination of power and grace, Armand Rousseau’s 2007 Lavaux St Jacques 2007, Gevrey Chambertin and 2008 Clos de la Roche and Chambertin stood tall.  White Burgundy was represented by Jean-Marc Roulot of Domaine Roulot (Meursault) and Jean-Marc Pillot (Chassagne Montrachet), whose tightly coiled, bony wines revealed as much about Niepoort as the themselves.  I particularly liked Roulot’s revelatory “slim” but intense Meursaults and Pillot’s super-precise Les Caillerets 2007!  Chouilly-based Chardonnay specialist Champagne R & L Legras was new to me, but the wines, especially Presidence 2002, Evanescence 2002 and St Vincent showed lovely line and oyster shell minerality. 

From Portugal, though well known to me, indeed, one of my favourite Vinho Verdes, Quinta de Soalheiro more than held its own with the intensely fruity yet structured 2010 vintages of the regular cuvée and Primeiras Vinhas.  The latter strikes a sublime balance between the stunning 2007 and 2008 vintages. 

Schloss Gobelsburg’s dry, traditionally fashioned 2009 and 2004 Hellisgestein Rieslings from Kamptal Austria really impressed with their quiet muscularity.  I shared a taxi to the airport with winemaker Michael Moosbrugger on the way home, who told me that he works oxidatively with this wine both because this is what the monks who originally made the wine did, but also because, like humans, he says, wines need to breathe.  The Gruner Veltliner Reserva 2009 was cool, limpid and finely balanced.  As for the red/gold Trocken Beerenauslese 2008, its skin, flesh and seeds were positively tangible, making for a powerful wine of great intensity and palate presence. 

Though all his wines were extremely accomplished, most of all, I loved listening to Spain’s Telmo Rodríguez speaking passionately about the importance of preserving Spain’s tradition of bush vines and wine generally, which he said “is not about winemakers but places,” nor should it be about “spectacularity.”  Particular (and not spectacular!) stand outs were El Transistor 2008 Rueda, one of my wines of the month (see here) and Pegaso Granito 2008 (Vinho de La Tierra de Castilla y Leon), a really fresh, lifted and intense Garnacha from a vineyard at 1200m, which he described as the most beautiful he’s ever seen.  Apparently, the region’s vineyards were once worked by 2000 mules, but by the time Rodríguez discovered the vineyard in 1999, it was more or less abandoned.

Line and length entered into a new dimension with Fritz Haag’s Mosel Rieslings, especially the Trocken 2009 and Spatlese 2004, both of which possessed a reverie-inducing crystalline purity.