The second generation of the Niepoort family, in the late 19th century, had the fortunate idea of buying from a german glass factory about 4000 glass balloons (in the form of old apothecaries’ bottles) of dark-green glass with varying capacities from 8 to 11 litres. Eduard Karel Jacob van der Niepoort died early and it was his son, Eduard Marius van der Niepoort, Dirk’s grandfather, who gave purpose to the demijohns by bottling the best wines of the 1931 harvest, thus creating the type “Garrafeira Niepoort”.