For The Love Of Port

It is possible for a tawny Port to be a leaker! Not very likely - this is the first time I've ever had one - but it can happen! I discovered this one as I was moving bottles from their shippers to my new wine storage rack/table.
As you can see the selo is pretty soaked. The back half was soaked, too, and there was a small mess down the side of the bottle. Only a very small amount - a stain about the size of a quarter - had made it onto the interior of the individual box it was shipped in, so it hadn't leaked too much yet.

Naturally I opened it - we refer to leakers as "volunteers" - and it tastes fine. The t-stopper broke during removal and I had to use a corkscrew to get the remainder out of the bottle, and that revealed the reason for the leak - the cork part had a natural vein running through it. This was a 2019 bottling so it hadn't really had time to deteriorate due to the leak, but the fact that a quarter-sized stain had formed in just 3 years means it was probably a pretty significant leak. Glad I found it while I could still enjoy the bottle!

I agree it's pretty rare to see a tawny leaking. Of course most of them are drunk soon after bottling. This must just be a bad cork.

Bought a 2003 Maynard's White Colheita some years ago and that had signs of seepage. So I backup your claim. If I recall I have seen it on a few other old colheitas bought many years after bottling. Those were sourced from not so clean provenance

I think the issue is not about Tawny but about those T-Cork ...

Just like regular cork, nothing is perfect. I deal with volume of the same wine at Quevedo and I can tell you it is happening quite rarely. Below 0,3% fore sure!