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Photos By:: Adil Arora
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| Dirk Niepoort, Miguel Roquette and Ambassador Oliveira |
Vinhos Niepoort and Quinta do Crasto wines may not be available in India yet but it is a certainty that both these wine estates will be present in India before long. It would be curious to see which of the importers have vision and understanding of wines from these two producers who are celebrity rock stars of Douro for the sophisticated wine world. Other members of the ‘band’ are Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Vale Meão and Quinta Vale Dona Maria.
One of the resources that would help make it happen is Ambassador Jorge Roza de Oliveira who had visited the two wineries, among many other estates making quality wines and who showed an interest to enter the Indian market before he took up the current assignment and brought with him some of their wines to help the trade do the sampling. This evening was an example of how he planned to go about promoting Portuguese wines.
Douro Boys are a band of five dedicated and innovative Douro producers who have become a marketing phenomenon globally for the promotion of red wines of the region, made from the local grapes. Today 45% of the total production of the region is still wine, the balance being Port. In the eight years since they banded together in 2003, they have become a brand representing modern high quality wines from Douro without losing the traditional touch.
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The evening started with a white port that found many eyebrows raised as people in India think of Port as red only. But there were also several still wines from both producers that have established themselves as top quality Douro wines- Tiara ’09, Redoma ’08 are two still reds from Niepoort which are serious food wines of excellent quality. Similarly, the top of the range Vinha Maria Teresa from the 100+ year old vines of Quinta do Crasto with a measly yield of 5.5 hL/hA, were truly the wines that have established Douro region as one of the top quality producing regions of Portugal. No wonder, producers like Niepoort and Crasto like to call their wines as Wines of Douro and not of Portugal.
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| Dirk Niepoort with Porto Vintage 1937 |
True to his personality, Dirk was so pleased with the Bonhomie and the warmth shown by the guests enjoying themselves that he brought out a bottle of 1937 Port from some secret corner that had people asking for a taste and possibly a re-taste of the fortified wine which was quite vibrant after 74 years of age.
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| Last of Porto 1937 to be poured |
Ambassador Jorge and his charming, effervescent wife Maria had organised the evening extremely well-including the snacks. But looking after each of the guest personally and making them comfortable made them worthy of being inducted as honorary Douro Boys. For any information, you may directly:
Contact Dirk at dirk@niepoort-sa.pt but first visit his website www.niepoort-vinhos.com or
Miguel at miguel.roquette@quintadocrasto.pt after visiting www.quintadocrasto.pt
Subhash Arora |