Post
by Roy Hersh » 02:18 Sat 03 Jul 2010
A few points of clarification:
a. the last bottle of 1983 Cockburn I opened from my own cellar was in very fine condition. Not as great a bottle as some I've had, but with extended decanting ... zero signs of TCA. Back in the 1990s, I considered this the Port of the vintage. Not anymore.
b. the 1983 mentioned in this thread from our Gala in 2009, was actually brought by an old friend of mine who had NEVER had a corked 1983 Cockburn from the many he'd opened. Todd lives in Atlanta, GA.
c. Although I have had a few dozen bottles of 1983 Cockburn's, the first case I owned in the 1990s, showed a 100% rate of successful bottles w/o any bad bottles. This was purchased from a now defunct company called Tinamou (in CA). The second case was purchased along with a 3rd from the same source ... The Wine Club (SF) in around 1998 or 1999. I had only one or two TCA infected bottles from the 2nd case. The 3rd which I am currently on, has had six of the past eight bottles corked. Every time I open one, I now worry. I don't know that I'd agree with an 80-90% rate of TCA on that bottling ... but none of us will ever know.
d. The bottle Miguel Corte Real brought to The Crusting Pipe in 2008 was lightly corked too and I was the first to mention, as it appeared other people were initially vacillating whether or not to bring it up, while some present, did not even notice TCA at all. Agreed it was probably only 2-3 ppt; but it certainly got worse over the subsequent hour and should have left no doubt in anyone's mind. In 2009, when Derek and I had lunch with Miguel, I even asked him about this "phenomenon" and inquired if Cockburn's would be willing to trade another vintage for bottles left in people's cellars and he was clear that was not possible. I felt it inappropriate to push on this point.
I'd hate to list all of the corked Ports I've had over the years, white/Ruby/LBV/VP/even a bad bottle of 1952 Dalva a few months ago. Too many to list, that's for sure. However, only within the past year, after several hundred bottles of Madeira, did I finally come across ONE with TCA. Remarkable!