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Help, please!

Posted: 21:46 Fri 10 Sep 2010
by AJMM
Gentlemen, please help me with a little advice.

I am hosting an impromptu tasting evening TOMORROW, predominantly to divest myself of the 50 Cockburn, I would welcome some advice on 3 or 4 others to serve alongside.

Ideally to complement and hopefully outshine.

I attach my current availability

I do need to get the bottles out to stand so ....a quick answer is a good answer.

Thanking you all in anticipation.

Andy

AA Almeida Tawny 1863
Burmester Vintage 1935
Taylors Vintage 1948
Cockburn Vintage 1955
Cockburn Vintage 1960
Fonseca Vintage 1960
Quinta do Noval Vintage 1960
Ferreira Vintage 1963
Smith Woodhouse Vintage 1963
SV Borges Vintage 1963
Warres Vintage 1963
Cockburn Vintage 1967
Cockburn Vintage 1970
Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage 1974
Cockburn Vintage 1975
Grahams Vintage 1975
Ferreira Vintage 1977
Grahams Vintage 1977
Quinta St Isobel Colheita 1977
Taylors Vintage 1977
Warres LBV 1979
Taylor Vargellas Vintage 1982
Smith Woodhouse Vintage 1983
Taylors Vintage 1983
Burmester Colheita 1985
Cockburn Vintage 1985
Grahams Vintage 1985
Taylors Vintage 1985
Taylors LBV 1985
Warres Vintage 1985
Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage 1990
Fonseca Vintage 1992
Churchill Vintage 1994
Grahams Vintage 1994
Niepoort Vintage 1994
Tesco/Symingtons Vintage 1994
Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage 1995
Grahams Vintage 1997
Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage 1997
Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage 1998
Fonseca Vintage 2000
Grahams Vintage 2000
Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage 2000
Fonseca Vintage 2003
Taylors Vintage 2003
Warres Vintage 2003
Fonseca Vintage 2007
Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage 2007
Smith Woodhouse Vintage 2007
Taylors Vintage 2007
Warres Vintage 2007
Barrister Old Tawny NV
Quinta do Noval LB NV
Taylors 10 year tawny

Re: Help, please!

Posted: 22:05 Fri 10 Sep 2010
by DRT
A Cockburn Vertical: 1950, 1955, 1960, 1967 & 1970.

Re: Help, please!

Posted: 07:01 Sat 11 Sep 2010
by Alex Bridgeman
Derek's idea works.

Or you could go for something that offers some complete contrasts in style and maturity.
Almeida Tawny 1863
Cockburn 1950
Smith Woodhouse 1983
Warre 2007
Taylor 10 year tawny

There would be a huge variety of tastes and flavours in that combination and everyone should find something they like.

Don't worry too much about standing them up before decanting them. It's ideal if you can, but we did an experiment once to see if we could tell whether there was a difference in flavour between freehand decanting and filtering through coffee paper or muslin. No-one was able to tell the difference, so now when we have emergency decants we just get out the unbleached coffee filter paper.

All the wines above will benefit from decanting. My suggestion would be 24 hours for the tawny and Warre, 8-12 hours for the Smith Woodhouse, 4-6 for the Cockburn and 2-4 for the Almeida...but then I am well known for liking my port soft and elegant. If you prefer something a little more robust and forceful then shorten these suggested decanting times.

Alex