Drink Me Nat Cool
⏳ Drinking Window
Best enjoyed fresh and youthful, typically within 1 to 3 years of the vintage release.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Traditional Portuguese roasted suckling pig, assorted charcuterie, or grilled sardines.
✨ Technical Specifications
The 'Drink Me' Nat Cool is a whimsical and revolutionary creation by Dirk Niepoort, designed to redefine the perception of Bairrada's signature Baga grape. Traditionally known for producing dense, highly tannic, and long-lived reds, Baga is reimagined here under Niepoort's 'Nat Cool' philosophy—an initiative promoting light, easy-drinking, low-intervention wines with low alcohol and high drinkability, famously packaged in eco-friendly one-liter bottles. Sourced from old vines grown on Bairrada's classic clay-limestone soils, the wine undergoes a short maceration and is aged entirely in stainless steel to preserve its vibrant, crunchy red fruit character and saline minerality. The playful 'Drink Me' label, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, invites wine lovers to enjoy Baga in its most unpretentious, refreshing, and joyful form.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1842 by Franciscus Marius van der Niepoort, Niepoort has evolved from a venerable family-run Port shipper into one of the most visionary and influential forces in Portuguese viticulture. Guided by fifth-generation iconoclast Dirk Niepoort alongside his son Daniel, the estate has redefined Douro winemaking by championing terroir-driven, lower-alcohol dry table wines alongside monumental fortified expressions. Sourcing fruit from steep, schistose terraces in the Cima Corgo as well as granitic and clay-limestone soils across Dão, Bairrada, Vinho Verde, and the volcanic slopes of Pico, viticulture prioritizes biodiversity, old field blends, and biodynamic principles. Winemaking emphasizes minimal cellar intervention, whole-bunch fermentations, and traditional foot-treading in granite lagares. Celebrated benchmarks span legendary, ethereal Colheitas and Vintage Ports to nuanced dry still icons such as Redoma, Batuta, Charme, and Quinta de Baixo’s Gonçalves Faria, all defined by remarkable mineral tension, textural finesse, and age-worthy elegance.
🍇 Grapes
Baga (min 50%), Touriga Nacional