The Rarest Rubies

[Christopher]

Today's FT Weekend magazine has an article by Jancis Robinson on an historic tasting at the Factory House of Cockburn's most admired vintage ports going back to the 1896 . It is in my view a very well written article on a tasting designed to help " discern the style of wine they should aim for in future vintages" but also gets over well the historical greatness of Cockburn before it lost it's way and the plans by the Symington family to restore it.
The oldest vintage tasted being the 1896 with three bottles of each wine being opened! According to the article there are only 3 bottles of 1896 left in the world ( I suspect I know someone else who has some ) and 4 of the 1912 in the Cockburn cellars! Interesting facts!
The article also highlights the 1908 and and 1927! Well so far this year I have had two of these 4 ports, one of them at lunch!



Apologies unsure how set up a link!

[g-man]

Fun read, but a bit too fluffy to be an informative article, more along the lines of someone trying to toot their horn even if it is ms. purple pages herself.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a3a52c70 ... z27utYFoq1

i am also glad that between sushi and I we both hold a bottle each of the cockburn 47

[Andy Velebil]

An interesting article but without much substance. And at least one incorrect statement I may point out which some others here will probably notice as well.

[Alex Bridgeman]

An interesting article but without much substance. And at least one incorrect statement I may point out which some others here will probably notice as well.

Very true - call it "writer's fluff"

[RAYC]

I always find Jancis an interesting read - i quite like her style and find she has a narrative flow that (i think) is superior to most other wine writers / journos / bloggers etc. (in terms of keeping me reading anyway!).

The FT article is a condensed version of the free-for-all on her site, which contains more detail (here)

The juicy stuff is, naturally, kept for the subscription-only part (here)

In an email from TS-C, this was apparently the line-up:

Declared Vintages: 1896; 1904; 1908; 1912; 1927; 1935; 1947; 1950; 1955; 1960; 1963; 1967; 1970; 2007
Not Declared: 1945; 1948, 1977
Quinta Vintage Ports: Quinta dos Canais 2009

No Cockburn 66 on the list though!

[RAYC]

Must admit - i didn't realise there was a Ck 78. Is that the Eira Vehla, or a distinct wine?

Interesting also that the FT article omitted the final two words of Paul Symington's quote, which reads in full as follows:

a slightly austere dryness and bitterness like orange marmalade, no blockbusters.

Which, overall, doesn't come across as a ringing endorsement! (and from my - admittedly limited - experience of old cockburn, i think i would be far more generous!)

[DRT]

I don't think there is a declared Ck78 - this is probably a bottle from the Director's cellar, which contains many undeclared vintages of Ck and CkC.