1985 Kopke

[jdaw1]

The presence of Alex B. in New York triggered a tasting (arranged via this thread, and discussed in this review) to which:

• Alex B. brought Kopke 1985;
• jdaw1 brought Warre 1985 and Warre 1977;
• g-man+♀ (Stephanie) brought Sandeman 1977 and Rebello Valente 1977;
• Bob Heckart brought Graham 1985.

This thread contains the tasting notes for the Kopke 1985.

[jdaw1]

Kopke eh? Obscure house. My mother insisted that some operas remain obscure for a very good reason, and that was my prejudice for this £26 bottle from LHR duty free.


Except that it is very very dark red. Not as opaque as the Fonseca 1985, but approaching that league. Nosing of floral something, and more strongly of menthol. Some (AHB) found liquorice, others (JG) ‟lavender”!

Lovely oily texture, like lychee or mango or Churchill 1985. Great length. Initially too hot, though that faded through the evening. ‟Light Fonseca” and (later) ‟green mint” said Jeff. The mint I found later wasn’t necessarily green. ‟Minerality” said somebody in the middle of the evening, who wasn’t wrong.

[Conky]

Kopke eh? Obscure house. My mother insisted that some operas remain obscure for a very good reason, and that was my prejudice for this £26 bottle from LHR duty free.

I was surprised to see Kopke as probably the most prevelant bottle on my 3 recent visits to Portugal. I have only tasted glasses of it, never had a full bottle, and haven't found a star yet. It sounds like your bottle is carrying on that trend.

[g-man]

this one had started out strong being one of the smoothest of the bunch,

but there was this strange herbal note to it. I was trying to think of the herb and thinking back I think it was Anise I was tasting, not the green mint.

the length on this was one of the longest, and the tannins were really soft.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Double decanted for 12 hours off a large amount of heavy sediment - heavy enough to have been able to decant 24 hours after having been flown across the Atlantic! A deep cherry red colour. A warm and inviting nose with sweet raspberries, a touch of menthol and even some blood orange. Over a relatively short time the menthol disappeared leaving only the fruit on the nose. The wine is thick on entry, with sweet strawberry syrup coming through. Air in the mouth brings out a good mid-palate. The finish starts well but tails off relatively quickly before holding a long time at a subdued level. Not as good as the last bottle drunk a month ago but still slightly above the median for drinking today and has the potential to improve - but I'm not sure how much. 6-6 on Tom's scale or 90/100.

As an aside, until about a month ago I had only had colheitas from Kopke. A month ago I went through duty free and thought that simply refusing to buy one of the ports in the duty free shop because I had never had one before was simply being "port snobbish". I bought one, tried it and really enjoyed it. £26 for a 1985 port of this quality is a pretty good QPR in my opinion and (if they have any left when I leave for Asia in a couple of weeks time) this will be my port when I travel again in the first half of November.