1987 Niepoort Garrafeira Port

[Andy Velebil]

Decanted 1991 and bottled in 2018. It has a rather dark cola-like color, akin to a mid-80's VP. Dried cherries, licorice and a wisp of jamminess on the nose. Quite thick bodied on the palate, with plenty of dried strawberries, cherries, cinnamon stick, and a faint amount chocolate wrapped around what can best be described as a young Tawny Reserve backbone. It ends on a rather long and very sweet finish that is very well balanced. The mix of VP/LBV and Tawny qualities makes this quite difficult to guess what it is when served blind. I would suspect this will get better with age in bottle, and in demijohn as well. A wonderful Port that almost seems too young to bottle, or at least release, right now.
94 Points

[Frederick Blais]

I agree with your tasting notes Andy. I had this wine again last Tuesday and I feel it is shutting down. I've tried this Garrafeira Port straigth from Demijohns, final blend before bottling(I had the luck to be there when they blended it) and many times after and it amazes me how now it starts to feel younger than before.

[Eric Ifune]

Lucky to have this twice in the past two months. Great stuff!

[Roy Hersh]

The last two were poured in Dirk's presence. Three times since 2020, but one was in February last year, poured by Daniel NIepoort. All of these were incredible. I tried to purchase some and was a bit amazed by the price of more than 550 Euros and saw one being sold for over 600 Euros in Portugal. I love this Port and would drink it just about anytime it was opened, but these are certainly pricey young Ports. If money is not an issue, this is a stunning Port and gives the impression of an older wine.

[Frederick Blais]

I agree with you Roy! I guess I am lucky, I had it again yesterday...

I think I paid 275 for the 1977 on release... this one also doubled since a couple of years. The prices probably reflects the rarity and the spaces it takes to store them vs barrels or big vats. Similar to low yielding vineyards.

[Glenn E.]

I've been lucky enough to have this 3 times - L.A., Sammamish, and Porto - and I've consistently rated it higher than Andy has here. IIRC I've been around 97 points for it each time. Of course, me rating Port higher than Andy is usually true anyway, so a 94 from him is a pretty good rating.

If you take away the fact that it's "only" 34 years old, it's a phenomenal Port. To me it tastes like something truly epic that is 30-40 years older than it actually is, but that has also maybe been "topped off" by a splash of something younger to give it extra character. If you served it to me blind and told me it was leftover 1945 Fonseca with a splash of 1985 Fonseca added to freshen it up a bit, I might very well believe you.

I was all set to buy a case (or 2... or 3...) of it since 1987 is my anniversary year, but the price pushed me away. I should probably get 1 or 2 before the price skyrockets, but wasn't able to arrange that last month while in Porto.

We'll see how it continues to develop in bottle, but right now I feel like this is going to be one of those treasured rare Ports that people talk about in hushed tones over the next few decades.

Also, it totally blows away the 1983. They're not even in the same leagues.