1987 Cockburn Tua
Posted: 23:05 Thu 11 Jun 2020
Having never had a Quinta do Tua and being largely unfamiliar with Cockburn’s vintage ports, this bottle made for a very pleasant educative experience.
In the glass after a five-hour decant on 07 June 2020, the semi-opaque wine showed clear signs of bricking. The nose was proffered a youthful medley of minerals, coniferous forest floor, raspberries, black currants and cherries. With respect to the latter, I never could decide whether they were black or red (i.e., do read on). A certain spice likewise tickled the olfactory nerve. At the fore-palate, wild strawberries were in evidence, along with hints of pine sap and nettle tea. These sensations gave way quickly to candied orange peel, grape stem, coffee and, counter-intuitively, far less spice than had been discerned at the nose. I found myself struggling to identify much of anything at the back-palate, beyond the gentlest of tannins – principally, I think, because each mouthful of this port differed than the previous and I became obsessed with finding consistency at the fore- and mid-palate for the purposes of this tasting note. ‘Twas my failing, not that of the port. As to the finish: it was understated, most agreeable and of medium length, the principal note being that of lemongrass.
This wine was very well balanced, with the levels of acidity and residual sugar being minimal. Indeed, the 1987 Quinta do Tua proved to be quite a dry port, though it is not to be confused with the Bomfim of the same year, the fruit being much more in evidence on the palate with the latter. At or near its peak, this sphinx of a wine should challenge the senses for another decade from its position, alongside the Bomfim, at the top (to paraphrase a certain solicitor-cum-wine secretary) of its generation's second rank.
-91 Points
In the glass after a five-hour decant on 07 June 2020, the semi-opaque wine showed clear signs of bricking. The nose was proffered a youthful medley of minerals, coniferous forest floor, raspberries, black currants and cherries. With respect to the latter, I never could decide whether they were black or red (i.e., do read on). A certain spice likewise tickled the olfactory nerve. At the fore-palate, wild strawberries were in evidence, along with hints of pine sap and nettle tea. These sensations gave way quickly to candied orange peel, grape stem, coffee and, counter-intuitively, far less spice than had been discerned at the nose. I found myself struggling to identify much of anything at the back-palate, beyond the gentlest of tannins – principally, I think, because each mouthful of this port differed than the previous and I became obsessed with finding consistency at the fore- and mid-palate for the purposes of this tasting note. ‘Twas my failing, not that of the port. As to the finish: it was understated, most agreeable and of medium length, the principal note being that of lemongrass.
This wine was very well balanced, with the levels of acidity and residual sugar being minimal. Indeed, the 1987 Quinta do Tua proved to be quite a dry port, though it is not to be confused with the Bomfim of the same year, the fruit being much more in evidence on the palate with the latter. At or near its peak, this sphinx of a wine should challenge the senses for another decade from its position, alongside the Bomfim, at the top (to paraphrase a certain solicitor-cum-wine secretary) of its generation's second rank.
-91 Points
