Indian Wine Academy · November 2011

Douro Boys Sing a Duet in DelhiNEWS

www.niepoort-vinhos.com

Dirk Niepoort, Miguel Roquette andAmbassador Oliveira

Posted: Monday, 21 November 2011 10:50

Douro Boys Sing a Duet in Delhi

Nov 21: Dirk Niepoort and Miguel Roquette, two members of the famous group of fivePortuguese producers of Douro, known as Douro Boys passed through Delhi earlier thismonth and had a tasting at the residence of the wine enthusiast Ambassador, H.E.Jorge Roza de Oliveira and regaled a select group of invitees with never-ending Portsand still wines, writes Subhash Arora who had met them both in Douro in June inPortugal and recommended them to visit India

Photos By:: Adil Arora

Vinhos Niepoort and Quinta do Crasto wines may not be availablein India yet but it is a certainty that both these wine estates will bepresent in India before long. It would be curious to see which of theimporters have vision and understanding of wines from these twoproducers who are celebrity rock stars of Douro for thesophisticated wine world. Other members of the ‘band’ are Quintado Vallado, Quinta do Vale Meão and Quinta Vale Dona Maria.

One of the resources that wouldhelp make it happen isAmbassador Jorge Roza deOliveira who had visited the two

wineries, among many other estates making quality wines andwho showed an interest to enter the Indian market before hetook up the current assignment and brought with him some oftheir wines to help the trade do the sampling. This evening wasan 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 becomea marketing phenomenon globally for the promotion of red wines of the region, made fromthe local grapes. Today 45% of the total production of the region is still wine, the balancebeing Port. In the eight years since they banded together in 2003, they have become a brandrepresenting modern high quality wines from Douro without losing the traditional touch.

www.niepoort-vinhos.com

Indian Wine Academy · November 2011 02

Dirk Niepoort with Porto Vintage 1937

Last of Porto 1937 to bepoured

The evening started with a white port that found manyeyebrows raised as people in India think of Port as red only. Butthere were also several still wines from both producers thathave established themselves as top quality Douro wines- Tiara’09, Redoma ’08 are two still reds from Niepoort which areserious food wines of excellent quality. Similarly, the top of therange Vinha Maria Teresa from the 100+ year old vines ofQuinta do Crasto with a measly yield of 5.5 hL/hA, were trulythe 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 calltheir wines as Wines of Douro and not of Portugal.

True to his personality, Dirk was so pleased with the Bonhomieand the warmth shown by the guests enjoying themselves thathe brought out a bottle of 1937 Port from some secret cornerthat had people asking for a taste and possibly a re-taste of thefortified wine which was quite vibrant after 74 years of age.

Ambassador Jorge and hischarming, effervescent wife Mariahad organised the eveningextremely well-including the snacks.But looking after each of the guest personally and making themcomfortable made them worthy of being inducted as honoraryDouro Boys. For any information, you may directly:

Contact Dirk at dirk@niepoort-sa.pt but first visit his websitewww.niepoort-vinhos.com or Miguel at miguel.roquette@quintadocrasto.pt after visitingwww.quintadocrasto.pt

Subhash Arora