Niepoort

Niepoort was founded in 1842 by Franciscus Marius van der Niepoort, a Dutch merchant who settled in Porto. The family shipped Port for four generations. Then Dirk Niepoort joined in 1987 and took over in 1997, and in the space of a decade transformed the company into something the previous generations would barely recognise: one of Portugal's most important producers of dry table wine, alongside (not instead of) the fortified heritage.

Based in the Cima Corgo with roughly seventy hectares farmed biodynamically across Quinta de Nápoles, Quinta do Carril, and other properties. Production is around 2.2 million bottles - eighty-five percent still wine, fifteen percent Port. The key dry wines: Redoma (the first, from 1991), Charme, Batuta. The Nat'Cool range - light, natural, low-alcohol wines in one-litre bottles using indigenous grapes - has become a separate identity. Drink Me and Coche sit at the accessible end.

Dirk has also built a serious Bairrada project working with the Baga grape, and his collaborations stretch worldwide - including with Craig Hawkins of Testalonga in South Africa. The range is wide, the ambition is wider, and the quality at the top end is genuinely great.