1938 Kopke Colheita Port

[Glenn E.]

Purchased during the FTLOP buying opportunity and opened over Thanksgiving to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. (Dad is a 1938 Vintage.)

1938 Kopke Colheita
bottled 2007
Tasted after a handful of dried cherries, so probably not showing its best initially. Improved with air time (and distance from the cherries).

Color: Very dark tawny, almost brown. Orange highlights.
Nose: Some shoe leather and tart dried apricots. A little bit of VA and some very mild alcohol.
Palate: Powerful and very concentrated. Butterscotch, dark dried apricot, orange marmalade, and coffee. Some brown sugar, but faint. A vague gritty texture very late and into the finish.
Finish: Coffee, tart citrus. A bit of an edge, but not off-putting. Nice and long. Tails off with some apples and grape stem.

Score: 93 points. This almost needed to be diluted it was so strong. I didn't have the opportunity to test the theory, but I suspect that it will mellow and be better after having been open for a couple of days.

[Roy Hersh]

What a nice thing to do for your father. I hope he really went wild over drinking something from his birth year. What a great experience.

I did that when my dad turned 70 (he was a 1926) and I opened a C. da Silva for him. It was a moment I will never forget and of course, kept the bottle. I opened a bottle of 1926 Barbeito Verdelho when he turned 80, and he liked it but not as much as the Port.

[Barry Sunderland]

Purchased during the FTLOP buying opportunity and opened over Thanksgiving to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. (Dad is a 1938 Vintage.)

1938 Kopke Colheita
bottled 2007
Tasted after a handful of dried cherries, so probably not showing its best initially. Improved with air time (and distance from the cherries).

Color: Very dark tawny, almost brown. Orange highlights.
Nose: Some shoe leather and tart dried apricots. A little bit of VA and some very mild alcohol.
Palate: Powerful and very concentrated. Butterscotch, dark dried apricot, orange marmalade, and coffee. Some brown sugar, but faint. A vague gritty texture very late and into the finish.
Finish: Coffee, tart citrus. A bit of an edge, but not off-putting. Nice and long. Tails off with some apples and grape stem.

Score: 93 points. This almost needed to be diluted it was so strong. I didn't have the opportunity to test the theory, but I suspect that it will mellow and be better after having been open for a couple of days.

Glenn,
What was the FTLOP 'Buying Opportunity"?

[Glenn E.]

Barry,

Every once in a while Roy sets up an opportunity for FTLOP subscribers to purchase Port directly from a producer, importer, or distributor. He negotiates the price and lineup aggressively so they're excellent opportunities to stock up at very good prices. Typically you can save the cost of your FTLOP subscription with the purchase of just a handful of bottles - I've saved enough during the various buying ops to subscribe for at least the next 10 years!

He's working on one now which you can read about in this thread.

[Roy Hersh]

Yeah, a slight delay has ensued. So I can't release the newsletter until tomorrow night.

That said, I hope you are sitting on some cash, because the liquid assets that will be offered are impressive! Barry, as a new subscriber (thanks again!) you will be able to see this in your .pdf version of the newsletter.