1983 Cockburn Vintage Port

[Alan Rath]

1983 Cockburn Vintage Port - this had signs of a little seepage, and given the many reports of corked wines with this bottling I figured it was time to roll the dice. The good news: this bottle was perfect. The bad news: I should have tucked it way back in the cellar for another 10-20 years. Perfect dark ruby color, sure, some fading from what must have been its original opaque murkiness, but no sign of browning or bricking (though a significant amount of grainy sediment in the bottom of the bottle). A superbly clean nose of sweet fruit, touches of spice, then a deep, intense, youthful port, drinking beautifully, but still only in the earliest stages of reaching its plateau. Maybe lacking a little complexity, but a terrific bottle of this vintage. 94 points

Regards,
Alan

[Andy Velebil]

Alan,
Great to hear you had a good experience with the '83 Cockburn's. It runs about 80-90% corked rate, but when not it's one of the best of the 83's. I believe you had mentioned elsewhere you decanted this about 3 hours prior. I've only had one great bottle of this, the rest have all been corked :hoppingmad: One of these days I'll run across another one that isn't corked and just savor it on that rare occassion.

[Alan Rath]

Drinking some of the remainder from two nights ago, even better now, bit of anise, lavander, dried herbs, garrique, a very nice bottle

[Roy Hersh]

Thanks Alan and I do appreciate your effort to visit us again!

It is nice to know that someone has good bottles of this VP. My luck with 'em has been pretty awful in recent years.

[Alan Rath]

Hey Roy!
Still working through the remains of the bottle, drinking beautifully on night 5! Hasn't budged at all, just a nice elixer :)

For better or worse, just don't have that many occasions to open Port, and the majority of mine are younger (94 and above), so I'm maybe a little too careful opening older bottles.

Cheers,
Alan

[Moses Botbol]

When not corked, this is one of the best ports of the decade.

[Roy Hersh]

Moses,

I agree, a fab VP when in pristine condition and I've said that for over 15 years now.

In the early days of drinking this VP, I never had an issue. After a full case and into my 2nd, before I found ANY TCA. I bought mine both, close to 20 years ago. Now I have had about 8 of 9 bottles in a row from my own stash, that have been corked. Not to mention bottles from Cockburn's too and other people's cellars, as recently as the gala from a bottle that one friend brought with him from ATL who said, he'd "never" had a corked one '83 Cockburn's before.




Alan,

That is the problem with you CA-centric wine lovers, you need to stop drinking the cool-aid and move on to the harder stuff! :help: Seriously, it is ok to pop an occasional 1994 to see how gorgeous these youngsters are turning out to be ... even as teenagers.