ROBERT PARKER  90 POINTS Wine Advocate 187 Feb 2010 by Jay Miller ; The 2007 Niepoort Pisca Vintage Port offers a similar personality. Mineral, floral, and spice box notes lead to a medium-weight, savory wine that will also provide solid mid-term drinking. It should be at its best from 2017 through 2027.

The Pisca vineyard has for many years formed part of the Niepoort Vintage Lot; in 2007 one very small parcel of Pisca was set aside and contrary to the current practice of ageing in large wooden vats it was aged in pipes,thus replicating the legendary Niepoort 1970 Vintage which was all aged in pipes. Furthermore, the handling of the wine prior to bottling in a less reductive way attempts to return to the days when Vintage ports were shipped in pipe to northern Europe and then bottled at the end of the second year or even in the third year following the harvest, in contrast to the current practice of bottling after a year and a half. Once again, at Niepoort, we believe that in a world of uniformity we have managed to produce a Vintage port with a difference, with a return to some of the small technical details from a bygone era...

Vinification After several dry winters, the 2006/2007 winter was most useful in replenishing dwindling water reserves. In 2007 the first parcels of Pisca were picked on 20th September and fermented at Niepoort's historic winery in Vale de Mendiz. All vinification was carried out in lagares with 100% stems. Fermenting musts exhibited very dark colours with spectacular purple hues and wonderfull acid balance.

Tasting Notes Dense in colour with a wonderfully fresh green aroma with a hint of dark chocolate dominating along with subtle aromas of dark fruits. On the palate, medium sweet, wonderfull fruit, with a seductive silky mid palate which is underpinned with a compact, lengthy tannin structure.