Wine Of The Week: Niepoort NAT’Cool! Voyeur

A soft, lush, experimental red from Portugal’s Douro Valley.

Wines of the Douro have certain characteristics. Whites are largely vino verdes — crisp, lightweight wines that go down like water. The reds tend to be big, broad-shoulder and bold, leaning heavily on oak and preferred by lovers of California Cabernet.

And while Niepoort has been producing port in the region for over 150 years, the brand recently started rethinking what makes a Port wine, experimenting with softer, more unusual styles of Douro wine. This wine in particular expresses the producer’s curious nature.

NAT’Cool! Voyeur is made with six (six!) different wines, both red and white, from six different vineyards in the region. Instead of the usual oak treatment, each wine is aged in amphora — large clay pots lined in beeswax — before blending. While most Douro reds are deep purple in color and big in body, this is almost a deeper rose — juicy, crunchy, floral and sleek with a little saltiness. Serve it chilled, and keep it around for Turkey. $41

Kate Dingwall is a WSET-trained sommelier and spirits writer. Her work has appeared in Wine Enthusiast, Eater, Forbes.com, and Food & Wine, and she pours wine at one of Canada’s top restaurants.