Dócil 2019

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One of the main Portuguese enologues which has been seen his work recognized in a rather


mediatic way in the last years has also been enlarging his wine projects in a quite impressive way, having started different projects all around Portugal and even in Germany having received generalized acclaim by the specialized press.

I have to confess that when reading about them I always grow curious to taste most of his work.

And so it was with this Dócil, produced by Dirk Niepoort. Having started in Douro, this project takes us to the Vinho Verde region to a single grape wine with one of the most representative grapes of the region, Loureiro. 

My first impression when I've opened the bottle was of a decent well done wine, but nothing that could match my personal expectation. After such a publicity I came across a rather flat wine which seemed to deny me the appealing citrus that I often find in this particular grape. Maybe that's the reason for its name: Dócil (Docile). Being so, the fruity aspect of it becomes more salient conferring to it a character more tending to a normal white wine rather than an exceptional Vinho Verde.

With the expansion of the Niepoort label I've been confronted with a couple of wines which have somehow failed to match my expectations. But still, I don't want to be misunderstood and this is a perfectly fine wine which manages to fulfill what it is required, but not enough to match the general expectation made around it.

 With it, I've found myself revisiting Oscar Wilde's poetry from which I've selected this The Grave of Keats:


Rid of the world’s injustice, and his pain,
    He rests at last beneath God’s veil of blue:
    Taken from life when life and love were new
The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,
Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.
    No cypress shades his grave, no funeral yew,
    But gentle violets weeping with the dew
Weave on his bones an ever-blossoming chain.
O proudest heart that broke for misery!
    O sweetest lips since those of Mitylene!
    O poet-painter of our English Land!
Thy name was writ in water—it shall stand:
    And tears like mine will keep thy memory green,
    As Isabella did her Basil-tree.

14,5/20
Country: Portugal
Region: Vinho Verde
Grapes: Loureiro
11%
Winemaker: Dirk Niepoort

Website: https://www.niepoort-vinhos.com/en/projects/Docil.html 


Location: Hamburg, Germany

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