1976 Kopke Colheita

[Eric Menchen]

From a 375 ml, bottled 2015, pop-n-pour.

Garnet-brown, with slightly more orange-red than I would expect for a colheita with 40 years; with very good clarity.

First aroma was orange citrus, candied orange peel to marmalade. Very concentrated and intense. Then some caramel and brown sugar. More brown sugar, with some acid and a little alcohol warmth. Hint of wood bark spice, somewhere between true cinnamon and cassia, with a bit of green.

In there mouth, fairly thick with intense citrus acidity matching the aroma, followed by the sugar. Finish shows off a pleasant warmth on top of the tangerine and orange. Later it settled in to slightly more thick than medium (not as thick as at first), and I wondered if the spice was cardamom.

Initially I was quite excited about this and thought it might go for 94 points or more. But it seemed to settle down without so much complexity. On the second night there was a little leather with the sugar, but not much more to make it interesting. 93 points.