Winemaker Notes
In a great year like 2015, the big challenge was selecting the final blend from more than 60,000 litres of very good quality wines, all of them worthy of great Vintage Port status. For more than a year, Dirk Niepoort, Nicholas Delaforce and Rodrigo Nogueira examined the wines carefully and meticulously selected the best vats.
In April 2017, near perfection was achieved when a blend of 20,000 litres was finalized. This is a great vintage, showing beautiful concentration, vigor and complexity, but with plenty of finesse and remarkable freshness. Compared to the 2011 vintage, despite the tannins also being very robust, the 2015 is a silky wine, with great structure and incredible balance thanks to its taut acidity and lower level of sweetness, which results in a fresher wine.
Perfect with "Queijo da Serra," a Stilton or other blue cheeses. Also great with egg based desserts such as "Pao de Lo" (Portuguese sponge based cake).
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Vintage Port is a field blend from old vines (80 to 100 years old). It comes in with 104 grams per liter of residual sugar. This is another gorgeous Vintage Port from Niepoort this issue, elegant, but very powerful and focused. I may have a minor preference for the Bioma this issue, but reasonable minds might differ and this is very fine. The tightly wound precision and serious backbone make this a 2015 with plenty of room to grow in the cellar, but that's not all. It has fine intensity of flavor and freshness to go with the big tannins here, making this a very serious Port on all fronts. It is impressive overall. It was a tank sample when seen, but it was the final blend and due to be bottled in two weeks when tasted. It should be in the marketplace by the time this article appears.
Range:94-96 -
James Suckling
This shows the elegance of the vintage. Not many port shippers are declaring but this exhibits length and firmness with structure. Medium to full body, light sweetness and lots of blackberry, blueberry and raspberry character. Very pretty length and firmness. Should be outstanding. Try in 2025.
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Wine Spectator
A lively, energetic Port, with lots of brambly grip and warm fruitcake notes carrying the core of steeped plum, raspberry and blackberry flavors. Licorice snap, apple wood, violet and mint accents add range. Best from 2030 through 2050.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F. To learn more, see our full Port Wine Guide
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.