Coincidence in Porto

[Roy Hersh]

Several times a week, in the latter part of the afternoon, I start to feel like a solid pick-me-up is needed. I walk down the block to my favorite coffee/bakery place where I have lunch a few times a week. Today, just before dinner time, I headed out and sat down, and before I could even order, I did a double take. At a table about 4-5 feet away, I recognized a man sitting there but at first I was not 100% sure it was him. We live nowhere near one another and the odds were that I was wrong, as he was looking down and I could not make out his face clearly because of that.

I decided to go with my gut, walked over anyway, and said, "Hi, Dirk?"
He looked up and smiled, as it had been almost a year and a half since we last saw one another in person. He invited me to sit down and we had some catching up to do. These kind of coincidences only happen to me in Porto. I am here often in this pastelaria and he lives about 20 minutes away. The odds of this were slim and slimmer. We talked about family, and some mutual friends from DK and the UK, and eventually, Port wine. He asked if I had tried some 2024's yet and I mentioned, "yes, 31, so far" and he asked my opinion of what I thought of the vintage overall. I also told him what I had heard about the next vintage (2025) too, and a couple of early samples I tried w/out mentioning names. He asked if i had tried the 2024 Niepoort yet, and I said, no, not as of yet.

He told me he had opened a bottle of the 2024 Niepoort earlier in the afternoon and had most of the bottle left, would I like to try it? The answer is obvious. So he went to the car and grabbed the bottle. It was really in fine shape, a touch cool and delicious. I told him I already had a few dozen bottles in my place, for my blind tasting later this fall and he asked if I had been in touch w/ specific members of his company to request a bottle yet? When I told him, not to this point, he mentioned that he had a couple in his car and would give me one if I would like. So he went back out and returned with a fresh bottle and told me to keep the open one too. I will be sipping the rest of the bottle tonight and tomorrow.

Serendipity in Porto, made for a wonderful reunion, and ended with an invite to an upcoming event.