1977 Cockburn

[jdaw1]

A multi-theme at The B&F on Wednesday 24th May 2017.
• Anything But Vintage IV (III, II, I).
• Blind.
• Optionally ‘For’ Somebody: some bottles were specified as being ‘For’ somebody, that somebody being expected to guess why.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Brick red colour, 50% opaque. Some gentle VA on the nose, mixed with orange and apricot. Considerable acidity shows on the palate, sweetened with gentle brown sugar. The acidity is piercing on the mid-palate, overwhelming the sweet dried fig flavours. The acidity is very powerful on the aftertaste, the balance is odd giving a very harsh and aggressive port. The finish is dry and bitter and has a good length; despite the bitterness the finish is rather enjoyable once the initial flavours start to fade and melt together. This improved significantly with time in the glass with the aggressiveness softening. Served blind this was guessed to be Niepoort Garrafeira 1964. 86/100.

[jdaw1]

Ck77, brought by CPR. Dark red, 70% opaque. Nose slightly dirty and acrid, with coffee. Palate very dry, and perhaps even a hint pétillant.

But time in the glass left it much cleaner.