Niepoort Charme Red 2023

The Wine Defender
PR 97

Luis Gutiérrez: The extremely young and elegant Charme 2023 is the most elegant red in the winery's Douro profile. It's an innovative wine, produced in the Mendiz Valley and Quinta de Nápoles to increase quantity (and quality), following the same logic—a short maceration with whole bunches in a lagar, pressed into barrels, where it finished fermentation and aged for nine months. They use high-altitude vineyards with a blend of varieties, including whites. It's floral and herbaceous, fragrant, elegant, finely structured, and balanced, with a refined profile. It boasts excellent balance and should age gracefully. It follows the path of the 2019 and 2021 vintages. 14,000 bottles were produced.

I tasted mostly 2023 whites and 2022 reds with the young team of Luis Pedro and Daniel Niepoort. The 2023 vintage is excellent for them, though not as exceptional as 2021. It was a balanced year in the Douro, with good spring rains, providing water availability in the soil. The summer was milder than in 2022, and the harvest was long, with some heat waves (when the vines stopped ripening twice) and some rain at the end (less favorable for Port), and everything was done slowly and carefully. The resulting wines have moderate alcohol content and good freshness, being a bit more rounded and accessible than the 2021s, with less tannins and softer acidity.

Published on: April 17, 2025