For The Love Of Port

Drunk on 08 October 2008 in a Cockburns vertical in London.

1983 Cockburn A corked bottle. Many of the players who own this Port have reported high levels of TCA amongst their bottles. I remember Roy Hersh and I opening two consecutive bottles of this Port from his cellar that were both corked. Another Port fan reported two corked bottles out of the three he had opened. Given these unacceptable odds, I refuse to buy 1983 Cockburn.

Of the probably 6 or 7 bottles I have opened in my life at least half have been corked. I am sorry I still have almost a case left.

Michael

You and me both, brother. 6 of the last 8 I have opened were corked. Before that I had a string of good luck. Who knows, obviously this is a global issue with the particular bottling. Although I mentioned it while at the tasting, i did not feel it was appropriate to make a big deal with Miguel there.

No kidding...a shame as when these bottles are not corked, they rock!

Andy,

You seemed to really like that bottle of 1983 Cockburn's:

The color had some slight signs of bricking but was still in the medium ruby category. Lots of violets, white cherries, white plums, cigar box, cedar, and lots of balance. There was also some secondary notes of coffee just starting to show. Interesting to catch this at this stage, as it was just starting to get some secondary flavors. A very nice long finish. There was some discussion that this may have a very small amount of TCA on it. None the less, this still showed very well even if there was a tiny bit of TCA poking its ugly head through. 94-95 points
10/08/08

Yes I did. It was a low barily detectable level of TCA according to some, and some didn't detect it at all....it was about an even split between people. but this particular bottle still showed very well even if there was a hint of TCA on it.

I have not had a good bottle in a while, I think I will grab some of mine to see how things are going with this wine. I might have to keep opening bottles, but I will for the sake of research.

Will report back this weekend.

Michael

Andy,

I think when Miguel noted it had TCA too, it was then not a matter of "if" it was corked, but how many parts per trillion were in there. I got it too, although it got worse during the course of the tasting, early on it was certainly drinkable and had some nice verve. I was able to get past it for the first half hour or so and then it started to bug me.


Michael,

It is an odd duck. I rarely get the sense of TCA when I first open the bottles. Maybe just a touch on the palate but not on the nose when the cork is pulled. However, from enough bad experiences ... it is very apparent by the time the bottle is in decanter for four or five hours. Sometimes I have noticed at 2 hours but others took much longer to worsen.

Roy I think I have noticed that too. I will keep tabs on a couple of decanters.

Looking back at notes from years past I have had some corked '97's as well (FWIF).

Michael