The Niepoort family has traded and aged Port in the lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia since 1842, but the still wines that now carry the name are largely the work of Dirk Niepoort, who joined the family firm in the late 1980s convinced the Douro's old vines could speak as clearly in dry wine as in fortified. He secured Quinta de Nápoles in the Cima Corgo in 1987, bottled the first Redoma red in 1991, and over the following decades built a range of Douro whites and reds farmed ecologically, with biodynamic practice across much of the estate. Coche sits at the top of that range, a white conceived in open homage to Burgundy's Coche-Dury and drawn only from the estate's oldest white-grape parcels.

The 2022 vintage ran hot and dry, and picking began early, on 12 August, from the old-vine parcels of rabigato, códega do larinho, arinto, and others on mica-schist at 650 to 700 meters. High elevation and old roots prevent the wine from veering too plush or overbearing.

After whole-cluster pressing and a 48-hour settling, the must fermented with indigenous yeasts in French barrels of 228 and 550 liters, half of them new, with a partial malolactic and a year on the lees. It leads with pear and quince cut by flint and lemon oil, then tightens on the palate into a saline, phenolic grip that keeps the finish long and driven. The wine stays cool and precise from first scent to last.