1983 Cockburn

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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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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1983 Cockburn

Post by jdaw1 »

A fantastic Lunch, on Sunday 15th February 2015, at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, Chris Doty providing the bottles blind.

This is bottle III, later revealed to be 1983 Cockburn.

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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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Re: 1983 Cockburn

Post by jdaw1 »

Ck83. Dark red, 60% opaque. Nose slight. At D+0 cloying and not properly opened. Most of an hour later rich, big, soft, mature, full and smooth. More than mid-weight. Delicious. Really tip-top Port. Excellent. Guessed (meaning hopelessly mis-guessed) to be Graham 1970, and perfectly stored Graham 1970.
Roy Hersh, in October 2009 on [url=http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopforum/viewtopic.php?t=7892]FTLoP :ftlop2014:[/url], wrote:Derek and I met with Miguel Corte-Real at the beginning of the week and over the course of lunch, I finally garnered the nerve to be very direct about the issues with TCA that revolve around the 1983 Cockburn's Vintage Port.

Miguel mentioned that he had found there were early signs that this was a problem and brought them up to the powers that be within Cockburn's. He said that many bottles were opened and checked for TCA and then recorked, many dumped. However, he believes there is about a 30% incidence of TCA in the remaining bottles from what he is aware of. I did not want to be too aggressive and ask how they could let even 10% out onto the marketplace, but I did ask if there was anything that we the consumer could do with our corked bottles or cases and he sheepishly shook his head "no" and that ended that discussion.

I may have left out a point or two that Derek may remember and add to this, but that is what stuck with me.

I am not trying to embarrass Miguel or Cockburn's but this is a very significant issue and to my knowledge, it was never directly discussed before with Miguel, although I did mention it very gently during the London vertical last October. It was neither the time nor the place to pursue the topic, but over a quiet lunch this past Monday, it needed to be aired once and for all.

I wish there was a better resolution, but I don't get the idea that we'll ever be made whole for our holdings of that tainted Port. He said there was a lesser issue with TCA in 1985 Cockburn too, but from what I gathered, we're talking a fraction of the issue realized with 1983.
This bottle was the best Ck83 that i have ever tasted, and as good as the rumours about the few good bottles.
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
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Re: 1983 Cockburn

Post by DRT »

I remember that lunch very well. I think we drank Cockburn 1977 (Crusted).
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
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