1983 Kopke Sao Luiz
Posted: 12:40 Sun 18 Jul 2021
1983 Kopke Q. S. Luiz
I'm never quite sure whether all Kopke is S. Luiz or not, so looked in 'the' book - which acknowledges both names without a defining judgement as to whether they are different or not. What it does do is mention the very stash this bottle came from - one of 34 purchased cheaply at auction in July '08.
Considering they were only 25 years old at the time, some were in a dreadful state - two had dropped corks, some had major seepage, and the original wax capsules had almost all disintegrated.
Of those 34, 3 were summarity drunk through due to their condition and 19 were sold off as cheap quaffers to various people. The rest I re-waxed, but a couple had continuing spoilage activity in the bottle and continued to seep despite the wax. At least one was badly corked and the persistant seepers showed poorly with signs of VA.
It was ten years before I was content to take them off my 'watch' list - bottles that demand annual inspection - and the stash has been flagged for drinking up from the outset.
Finally I was down to just four bottles, with decent levels and no seepage. This was one of them.
Quite light on decanting, darkening and finding much more composure on day two. An easy decent quaff and holding up quite well.
Scoring has to be seen in the light that this was from the best 4 out of 34, my score reflecting how this bottle showed and how I hope the remaining good bottles will show. I've scored it 4-4.
With just three bottles left and no imperative now to be finished with them, the drink up flag is removed and the rest will probably find their way into tastings - 83@40 perhaps..
I'm never quite sure whether all Kopke is S. Luiz or not, so looked in 'the' book - which acknowledges both names without a defining judgement as to whether they are different or not. What it does do is mention the very stash this bottle came from - one of 34 purchased cheaply at auction in July '08.
Considering they were only 25 years old at the time, some were in a dreadful state - two had dropped corks, some had major seepage, and the original wax capsules had almost all disintegrated.
Of those 34, 3 were summarity drunk through due to their condition and 19 were sold off as cheap quaffers to various people. The rest I re-waxed, but a couple had continuing spoilage activity in the bottle and continued to seep despite the wax. At least one was badly corked and the persistant seepers showed poorly with signs of VA.
It was ten years before I was content to take them off my 'watch' list - bottles that demand annual inspection - and the stash has been flagged for drinking up from the outset.
Finally I was down to just four bottles, with decent levels and no seepage. This was one of them.
Quite light on decanting, darkening and finding much more composure on day two. An easy decent quaff and holding up quite well.
Scoring has to be seen in the light that this was from the best 4 out of 34, my score reflecting how this bottle showed and how I hope the remaining good bottles will show. I've scored it 4-4.
With just three bottles left and no imperative now to be finished with them, the drink up flag is removed and the rest will probably find their way into tastings - 83@40 perhaps..