x
  • Country ranking ?

    22
  • Producer ranking ?

    1
  • Decanting time

    45min
  • When to drink

    Now

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The Story

The epitome of bottle-aged Port.

Opulent wild blackberries, fragrance of violets, scents of flowers and wild herbs, rockrose, mint, hints of spice, bottled in their time capsule and left to mull over for years. The finish is long and persistent. It never really finishes, in fact, because just as it starts to, you’ll take another sip. We are not satisfied with anything less than perfection. And nor should you be. So, we only ‘declare’ a Vintage year when the weather has been idyllic and everyone is feeling very happy about things in general. Our reputation hangs on the quality of our Vintage Port: it is our pride and joy. So, we don’t take it lightly. Making Vintage Port is a serious business, but you don’t need to be serious to drink it, you only need to enjoy.

 

Vineyards

We search our best mountain vineyards for the grapes to make our Vintage Port. We measure and weigh the bunches of grapes individually as we prepare for the harvest to ensure each one is perfect. The grapes for our Vintage Port come from our home at Quinta dos Canais – a magical place, you have to see it – as well as Quinta do Vale Coelho, just next door and a little further east, and Quinta do Cachão do Arnozelo.

 

Winemaking

Vintage Port is the creation of the weather and of nature. We are at the mercy of the gods. We pick the grapes and tread them in our 'lagares' (treading tanks) that same night. Later we let the wines rest in wooden vats for no more than 18 months. We bottle them as they are: unfiltered, totally natural. And once they are in their time capsules, they slowly mature for many years. It is not unusual for one of our Vintage Ports to be in fantastic condition after 50 or more years in the bottle.

2007 was the year of the first Cockburn’s Vintage Port made by the Symington Family, winemakers in the Douro for over a hundred years. This family took over Cockburn’s in 2006. And what has the international wine community been saying? Pride restored.

 

How to Store

Vintage Port needs to lie down during its years of slumber after it has been bottled. Keep it in a cool, dark, dry place, where it can rest in peace. At about 15 to 20 years old Vintage Port will start to show the characteristics of slow ageing in bottle and it will taste really exceptional. By then it will have gained silky elegance and complexity. But you can enjoy it earlier, if you prefer a more intense, fruity experience. It will go on for many years after that too.

 

How to Serve

After years in bottle, Vintage Port throws a natural sediment in the bottle. There’s no need to worry about this. You just need to decant the wine before serving. Decanting is easy. Let us show you how. Vintage Port should be served in generous wine glasses, not the small thimble-like glasses in which most of the aromas and flavours are lost. Fine white wine glasses would do the trick, for example, or indeed specific Port glasses from Riedel. Serve it slightly cooler than average room temperature, but not chilled. It will stay at its peak for a few days once decanted, just like any other great red wine.

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Written Notes

Arguably the greatest Cockburn vintage. Much heralded as the internal records said: ‘showing a remarkable character’. My fellow wine writer Steven Spurrier first tasted it on Christmas Eve 1954 when his grandfather first invited him downstairs to try wine with the grown-ups. ‘It was so wonderful it persuaded me to go into the wine trade,’ he told us. None of the Symingtons had tasted this famous wine before. The vines planted after phylloxera had reached maturity.
Looks so clear and tawny and with hints of pink still. Something just a little smudgy about it – sheer complexity? – but very spicy. Hugely intense with a hint of delightful rancio. Dried herbs. Round and vital and so fresh. Herbal top notes. Orange flower notes. Incredibly racy for a 104-year-old wine. Carries on and on. Fabulous length. Great balance.

  • 100p

Decanted an hour and a half before serving. Still with a very good deep bronze color and brown rim. The nose was very good, spirity. Lovely soft brown sugar aromas with great acidity. Still soft and subtle fruit, ripe banana nose. The nose didn’t evolve a lot in the glass but it had been decanted two hours earlier, so it might have already evolved in the decanter. The palate was very hot, spirity and beautiful. A metallic spirit. Very long. Still had good fruit. Very hot in the back of the mouth. Alive, more fruit and fresher than the Fonseca 1927. In the glass in evolved by becoming more syrupy. ***** There was a second bottle which was very badly ulleged but still very drinkable, more faded and brandy like.

  • 98p
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Origin

Douro, Douro
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