1994 Cockburn's Vintage Port

[Brian C.]

I decanted for about seven hours. In the glass it has the appearance of cranberry juice in color and opacity.

The first two nights were a bit challenging. It always seemed to fall apart spectacularly on the finish. It got pretty bitter and alcoholic at that point, when I was hoping for some kind of follow through to what I was tasting initially.

Tonight, on night three, it has calmed down quite a bit. It is doing a better job of finishing what it started, anyway, but it's still not quite there yet. The nose is not very strong, but then my sinus issues are probably not helping here. A little of strawberry on the nose, not a lot else going on. In the mouth, there's a little of the strawberry Starburst effect going on, but I'm not trying very hard to delay the finish.

I don't know if I screwed this one up on the decant time, or if this VP just isn't ready for prime time, or even if the game is over for this one. I just poured it into the decanter around 2:30 and had something to look forward to after we got home from dinner that night, figuring this one would fall in the 6-8 hour range. I only paid $25 for this, so I am not feeling too much pain over this one, anyway. I have another one left, and I am in no hurry to open it.

[Brian C.]

It seems to have mellowed a bit more on night 4. The nose now has some chocolate milk going on. Some squares of Ghirardelli dark chocolate from my wife's baking stash help to moderate the finish I mentioned before, but I still don't look forward to the finish on this. Not a lot of pondering going on over here, that's for sure. I was hoping for more than this, anyway.

[Brian C.]

Later on during night 4 this has taken on a root beer profile. That's kind of cool, actually.

[Andy Velebil]

Not the best vintage for Cockburn's and it will most likely be an early maturing VP..

[Brian C.]

At $25 I was willing to find out if that was indeed the case. I'm always willing to question the conventional wisdom at the right price level, anyway. Sometimes things are a bargain for a good reason, though.

[Andy Velebil]

Sometimes things are a bargain for a good reason, though.

No truer words spoken