For The Love Of Port

Bottled in 2007 - Upon pouring the first thing that stuck me was the color, which was a rich fairly deep red that was somewhat darker that I had anticipated. On the nose I detected copious amounts of brown sugar and walnuts with just a hint of hazlenut in the background. The palate revealed more brown sugar, molasses, pecans and a bit of honey. There was also some spice poking through and although it was somewhat sweeter than I would have liked, I definitely would not classify it as cloying. The spirit was well integrated, but I thought that this wine was missing a bit of complexity. The finish was fairly long, smooth and elegant. Overall this wine surpassed my expectations for such a challenging vintage. 89/100

Thanks Marc. I've got one on death row at the moment so it's good to know what to expect.

Actually I think you have perfectly described this one Marc. But it highlights the issues I have with Colheitas that meet the standards for the category, while at the same time failing to provide the complexity and nuanced evolution that only time in wood can provide. Although I will drink them if someone else pops and pours; but for my own cellar, I won't ever buy anything less then 35 years old for a Colheita, exactly for the reasons you've noticed with the 1988 Kopke. A well made wine ... just removed from a wood a decade too early.

I understand that they need to have these youngsters though to fill the pipeline or they'll deplete the oldies too quickly. The young ones also do provide reasonably priced alternatives for someone just being exposed to the Colheita category.

Roy Hersh wrote: but for my own cellar, I won't ever buy anything less then 35 years old for a Colheita

Same here. I'll buy a 20-yr Old Tawny Port or a Colheita from about 1978 or earlier, but in both cases I'm beginning to think of those as "young" tawnies. I'll also make an exception for anniversary years (1987 in my case), but other than that I want more age on my tawnies.

You make this one sound pretty good though, Marc! I may have to pick one up and try it.

Marc J. wrote:Upon pouring the first thing that stuck me was the color, which was a rich fairly deep red that was somewhat darker that I had anticipated.

It is interesting that you should comment on how ruby this 1988 Kopke Colheita was, for I thought the same thing about the Kopke Colheita that I opened a couple of months ago... from 1976! (It was bottled in 2007, as well.) Sadly, I thought that it was also lacking in complexity, especially when compared to the 1976 Porto Rocha Colheita.

Setting a minimum year can be a general rule of thumb but lets not forget there are still some very tasty younger Colheita's out there. The 1983 Krohn's and the 1994 Niepoort are two off the top of my head that are drinking quite nicely at the moment. I've got some of the 1994 Niepoort's that I'm keeping long term as an experiment to see how they age in bottle. Should be fun to one day compare it side by side to a recent bottling.

I opened this bottle as part of a tasting comparision for a friend of mine that is just getting into Port. I compared the Kopke 1988 Colheita to a 20 year old blended tawny (ie. with an indication of age) and I think that this side by side tasting really opened his eyes to the differences in the various styles of Ports (tawnys in particular). I'm also of the opinion that 30 years of age is pretty much the minimum in order to develop the interesting complexity that older Colheitas can exhibit.

Marc