1987 Cockburn's Quinta do Tua Vintage Port

[Bill Spohn]

In vintages not generally declared, the single quinta wines are often vinified and bottled alone, without blending. Cockburns has Tua and Canais (and two others I’ve never seen as single quinta bottlings), and you don’t often see them as they never seem to get wide marketing exposure. I bought this on release after an initial tasting that impressed me, and this was the first bottle I’ve opened – I haven’t seen much in the way of notes on this one, so took a chance. Cocoa and red fruit in the slightly hot nose, and cocoa in the mouth, also a bit of heat there, but very smooth, quite long in the finish. Hard to believe the vintage as this presents like a very decent Port of a normal declared vintage. I’d say this was still on the way up. Good showing. Opened and decanted about 5 hours ahead.

[Bill Spohn]

Follow up 2 days later.
This wine does not fade, it mellows, loses some of the heat and carries all the good things through. Good show.

[Roy Hersh]

HI Bill, It sounds like a winner. Thanks for the note, but even more so, the follow up 2 days later. I love when you find the bottles are even better a couple of days later. This says a lot for the excellent 1987 vintage. I've still never heard a really cogent answer as to why 1987 was not a declared vintage. It probably really had more to do with the fact there had already been declarations in 1980, 1983 and 1985 and the major shippers did not want to break tradition with a 4th declaration at that point.