I came across the “1977 Alan Parker Agency Showreel”, which included an ad for Cockburn’s Special Reserve Port.
Special Reserve was first made in 1969 as a user-friendly style of Port. It is essentially a Ruby Port with extended (five-year) ageing in casks.
It’s well worth watching the full 20-minute reel to see how TV advertising was done 40 years ago. A lot of it is very amusing to modern eyes and ears.
Parker was not, as far as I know, a wine man, but his long-time collaborator Michael Seresin is.
Seresin was cinematographer for Parker’s films Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Birdy, and Angel Heart, among others, and more recently for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
I met him many years ago on my first visit to New Zealand and spent time at his Seresin Wines estate in Marlborough.
Alas, I don't have any Cockburn’s Special Reserve Port – but I do have some nice bottles of Vintage 1967, made when Alan Parker was a humble advertising agency copywriter.
- 1967-Cockburn-Vintage-Port.jpg (143.13 KiB) Viewed 2184 times
- Midnight-Express.jpg (172.7 KiB) Viewed 2183 times
- Alan-Parker-Showreel-1977.png (131.47 KiB) Viewed 2182 times
