1985 Kopke

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
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1985 Kopke Vintage Port

Post by DRT »

Purchased at Heathrow Airport in Aug 2005* - provenance unknown My first experience of Kopke The cork crumbled and it took significant effort to extract all of the bits with various kitchen implements before decanting.

Decanted easily off remarkably little crust. Colour was a bright brownish red. An attractive floral aroma filled the room whilst decanting. Nose in the decanter revealed strawberry jam and no spirit whatsoever.

On Decanting
Smooth and thick with a slightly bitter anecede flavour. A small amount of heat came through after a few seconds but quickly faded to a minty tingle and then a long sweet finish of strawberry.

+5 Hrs
Significantly darker. Now a ruby red which has lost the brown tint from earlier, perhaps a trick of the light. Very smooth but quite light in the mouth. Anecede and dark chocolate with a mouth watering sweetness. Finish still has that minty tingle followed by long fruit.

Perhaps it's time for my first attempt at a score - I'll use Tom's scale - in
terms of the VP's I have tasted this year this scores a slightly above average 6 - I did not detect any significant tanins and the colour was quite light on decanting despite the absence of heavy sediment so I don't think this will improve from here. That said, it's not dying by any means, so I'll give it

Score: 6-5


* Edit to correct time travel implication highlighted below (thanks' Jdaw1)
Last edited by DRT on 18:51 Sun 24 Jun 2007, edited 1 time in total.
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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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Re: 1985 Kopke Vintage Port

Post by jdaw1 »

1985 Kopke:
Derek T. wrote:Purchased at Heathrow Airport in Aug 1985
Wow!

Edit: DRT corrected to Aug 2005.
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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
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Post by RonnieRoots »

When I tried this last (about two years ago I think) it still showed pretty young. Could it be that your bottle suffered a bit (given the crumbling cork and the brown colour)?
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
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Post by DRT »

Quite possibly. To be honest, I am always suspicious when I see this sort of thing on an airport Duty Free shelf. There was lots of it, and the bottles were nice and dusty, but it just isn't the kind of wine I expect to see in that kind of retailer. It always suggests to me that they have come across a very cheap lot rather than a strategic purchase from a good supplier.

Derek
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