Niepoort Conciso Tinto, Dao

Description

Niepoort Conciso is a red wine made from grapes sourced from old vineyards in the Dao wine-growing region. Conciso is Niepoort’s interpretation of a fine and elegant Dão, without heavy fruit, which shows the full potential of an old vineyard.

Niepoort was founded as a Port House in 1842 and today is run by the 5th generation Dirk Niepoort. Whilst they are still very well known for their superb Port wines, they are now considered to be one of the top Portuguese producers of table wines. Dirk really was at the forefront of the Portuguese and Douro wine revolution. He first started experimenting with wines in 1990 and releases his first wine, Niepoort Redoma Tinto in 1991. Dirk continues to experiment and innovate and produces some fantastic wines from the Douro, Dao and Bairrada as well as joint ventures further afield.

The story goes that Niepoort Conciso is the result of a rainy 2012 harvest in the Douro when the harvest was halted for two days. Rather than doing nothing Dirk made a trip to visit an old, almost 100 year old, vineyard in the Dao region that he had heard about. The vineyard is planted on granite soils facing east on the slopes of Serra da Estrela. The vineyard was tended by an old farmer and was at the perfect moment to be harvested. The vineyard was planted with Baga and Jaen and a mix of several other grape varieties. A deal was struck with the farmer and the grapes were harvested the same day. The grapes were vinified in lagar with the help of one of Dirk’s friends Álvaro de Castro, from Quinta da Pellada. The idea behind Niepoort Conciso is to show that a fine and elegant Dao wine can be made from old vine vineyards.

The grapes for Niepoort Conciso 2015 are Baga (40%), Jaen (30%) and others (30%). They are fermented in lagares, with 50% stems and a long maceration period without excessive extraction. The wine was fermented for 25 days and then matured for 20 months in a large 2500L wooden barrel before being bottled unfiltered and unfined.