Corked Colheita Ports

[Alex Bridgeman]

I was opening a bottle of vintage port the other day, hoping that it would not be corked, when it occurred to me that I don't recall ever having tasted a bottle of TCA infected Colheita port.

Granted, I do not drink anything like as much colheita port as I do vintage, but it did make me wonder whether corking is just as common in barrel aged ports as it is in bottle aged ports.

Has anyone ever tasted a corked colheita? If so, does your experience lead you to believe that corked colheitas are as common as corked vintage ports?

Alex

[g-man]

I was opening a bottle of vintage port the other day, hoping that it would not be corked, when it occurred to me that I don't recall ever having tasted a bottle of TCA infected Colheita port.

Granted, I do not drink anything like as much colheita port as I do vintage, but it did make me wonder whether corking is just as common in barrel shed ports as it is in bottle aged ports.

Has anyone ever tasted a corked colheita? If so, does your experience lead you to believe that corked colheitas are as common as corked vintage ports?

Alex

well the cork comes from either a winery with a TCA problem
or a cork that hasn't been steralized properly.

I'd guess that with Colheitas because the woody component is so apparent, it might hide that telltale "wet cardboard".

i believe at our last colheita we did indeed come across one that was quite foul, but the wine slips my mind

[Andy Velebil]

alex,

I've had several corked colheita's and the rate seems to run just a little lower than VP's, in my experience. That is probably becuase I open more VP's than Colheita's, so I'd say the rate runs about the same.

[Axel P]

Alex,

normally Colheitas should be drunk when bottled. I guess this is the reason why a faulty cork does not have that much of effect, because the time it spends with the cork is normally shorter.

On the other hand I do agree with g-man, that the flavours of an (old) Colheita will more lay over a bad corky note than VPs would do.

To answer your question: I opened some Colheitas that already went bad, but never experienced a corky note yet on them.

Axel

[SushiNorth]

normally Colheitas should be drunk when bottled.

Really? The port trade makes a big deal about buying a bottle of Colheita from your/kid's birth years and putting it away for many years to be opened on some celebratory occasion. I've only one, and had no opportunity to try any, but that's certainly an interesting tidbit.

[Andy Velebil]

Well, it depends on who you talk to in the Douro about aging Colheita's in bottle. Some, such as Niepoort, believe that colheita's can and do age in bottle. Some, such as Barros, believe the opposite. Personnally, I think younger ones will age some, but the older ones don't really age all that much. No data behind that, just my personal belief.

As for corked wines...once its bottled with a tainted cork, its corked. From the day it left the bottling line, it was corked. So weather it spends one week in bottle or 10 years in bottle, its still corked the same. The reason why some are a "stronger" corked than others, is the level of TCA in the cork is higher than other TCA tainted corks. So there can be different "levels" of corkness depending on how badly infected the cork is.

[g-man]

would it be corkness, corkedness, corkiness or just corked?

[Andy Velebil]

would it be corkness, corkedness, corkiness or just corked?

I ain't got no idea...I have a hard enough time trying to spell my own name at times

[DRT]

would it be corkness, corkedness, corkiness or just corked?

I ain't got no idea...I have a hard enough time trying to spell my own name at times

Isn't is corkosity

I have only had one, a Noval 78 (I think) when with Andy in VNG last October.

Derek