For The Love Of Port

Roy Hersh wrote:Alex,

I had a nice run in the past 18 months in which I had 4 or 5 consecutive bottles of 1983 Cockburn's which were not corked. Then again, I changed my protocol after discovering that if TCA was not obvious immediately upon opening ... it typically took 4-5 hours in decanter for it to emerge. So I began to ignore decanting except for sediment and would serve pop and pour ONLY. Even this summer when Rupert popped a bottle of this, I told him about my findings and he was very happy that the bottle did not show any TCA and we enjoyed it immensely. For anyone that has tasted this 1983, it is about as good as any from this venerable vintage. Finding clean bottles is so crazy with the Cockburn's though, I'd never consider buying it again, once I open my last bottle which was from three original cases purchased back in the early 1990's at $19/ bottle.

M GELB wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:Alex,

I had a nice run in the past 18 months in which I had 4 or 5 consecutive bottles of 1983 Cockburn's which were not corked. Then again, I changed my protocol after discovering that if TCA was not obvious immediately upon opening ... it typically took 4-5 hours in decanter for it to emerge. So I began to ignore decanting except for sediment and would serve pop and pour ONLY. Even this summer when Rupert popped a bottle of this, I told him about my findings and he was very happy that the bottle did not show any TCA and we enjoyed it immensely. For anyone that has tasted this 1983, it is about as good as any from this venerable vintage. Finding clean bottles is so crazy with the Cockburn's though, I'd never consider buying it again, once I open my last bottle which was from three original cases purchased back in the early 1990's at $19/ bottle.

Greetings ..as this is my first post. I, truthfully, was not aware of the corky reputation of Cockburn '83 so I decided to open one for a Valentine's Day dinner with the usual suspects. Andy, you know them all! Well, it WAS horribly corked and obvious immediately upon opening. I then opened a second bottle and it was gorgeous! These were both pristine bottles purchased on release and cellared correctly. Perfect labels and sealing plastic/wax. We paired it with a '83 Warre's which showed beautifully. There was no clear consensus as to the "winner" as both bottles shined.