For The Love Of Port

This past Sunday we hosted a Super Bowl viewing at the house and pushed a few " fence sitters " all the way over to the wonders of Port. We drank all the Ferreira 20 Yr., and the Rocas '70 Colheita. I had Cockburns '83 decanting when the guests insisted we drink it now ! It'd been given about 4 hours air time so, we dove in. Nothing was said right away, just notes on the smoothness. I mentioned the musty aroma and the others agreed. There was definetly a musty aroma to this bottle. Is this what is called a " corked " bottle ? Is there any recourse for a buyer of such a bottle ? Thanks.

Dan

Yes Dan this is a corked bottle. Here in Québec we get a refund for a corked bottle when you bring back 3/4 of the wine and your bill. Then they ask for a chargeback at the producer I think.

I don't know if this service is available everywhere though.

Jeez. Since 2004, I have opened 3 of 4 bottles of this exact wine that were corked. 2 on the same day. :twisted:

Dan

I'm going to be slightly contrarian now and potentially disagree with Fred. I have had bottles of port and other wines that might have been described as "musty" but which have not been corked.

If the "musty" was a "dusty" kind of mustiness, then this may have been something else - possibly even an aspect of the wine. Also, I have had wines which were pretty revolting smelling and tasting on opening but which recovered dramatically after 12 hours or so of standing in the decanter. A corked wine (I understand but have never tested personally) cannot recover in this way.

On the other hand, if your wine smelt of wet, moudly cardboard or damp mushrooms then I will have to gracefully concede that Fred is spot on (as usual) and that you opened a corked bottle. If you have any of the corked wine left then its worth taking it back to the shop where you bought it if you can.

Alex

I will have to gracefully concede that Fred is spot on (as usual)

Easy Alex!

We don't want him to get a swelled head or you won't ever have the cpportunity to see him get it inside the demijohn. Too bad you missed that this past fall at Niepoort's. His avatar, is actually the "before" picture!

Thanks for everyones help in determining I got a corked bottle. Alex, the aroma was the wet kind of musty smell although, the wine tasted OK. Certainly not revolting, we drank it. We mostly agreed the wine had little or no taste. My preference for tawnies grows stronger !

Dan

Dan,

If you can, do give the Cockburn '83 another try - but this time make sure that your guests don't drink it if its corked so you can take it back for a refund or exchange!

Alex

Wet musty sounds kinda korky to me.

However, I will also pick up on Alex B's point that a dry dusty mustiness can be an aspect of the wine. At the Crusted Pipe in November, which Alex, Roy and I were in attendance, all of the Sandemans' had this quality and it helped distinguish the wine. Having said that, not everybody agreed on the characteristic - that's wine-tasting for you.