More Cocktail Ports: Cockburn Tails
Posted: 09:44 Thu 29 Jul 2021
A new release from Cockburn: a range of three Ports (a white, tawny and ruby). I think, from their advertising, they are blended for making cocktails. They are apparently only selling them direct at the moment to Portugal and the UK, at £20 or €20 a go.
http://cockburns.com/tails
There isn’t much in the way of concrete technical specification about them. The White is said to be made from high-altitude vines and is a little drier than, presumably, the standard Cockburn White, so I guess it is an off-dry. They say that all three are experimental blends for a new generation of wine-makers.
Trivially, I think the bottles look absolutely fantastic. The Symington group has really upped its graphic design game recently (e.g. the Graham’s № range; the new LBV tubes; the Cockburn Fine White with its embossed label) etc. Long may that continue!
I also like the idea of limited edition Ports. I sometimes worry that any non-single-vintage Port can be made to a lowest common denominator since there is a need to produce it consistently over many years in large quantities. I am accordingly a huge fan of the fact that there are now limited editions of them being produced (e.g. through the Port Club) which means its is possible to try something a bit different.
That said, I do always slightly worry that stuff made for cocktails might be a bit lower-quality than that which is advertised for drinking neat. After-all, the history of cocktails started with an attempt to improve poor quality spirits with ice, sweeteners and bitters. However, I will do my best to down-play my cynicism and see what these are like.
http://cockburns.com/tails
There isn’t much in the way of concrete technical specification about them. The White is said to be made from high-altitude vines and is a little drier than, presumably, the standard Cockburn White, so I guess it is an off-dry. They say that all three are experimental blends for a new generation of wine-makers.
Trivially, I think the bottles look absolutely fantastic. The Symington group has really upped its graphic design game recently (e.g. the Graham’s № range; the new LBV tubes; the Cockburn Fine White with its embossed label) etc. Long may that continue!
I also like the idea of limited edition Ports. I sometimes worry that any non-single-vintage Port can be made to a lowest common denominator since there is a need to produce it consistently over many years in large quantities. I am accordingly a huge fan of the fact that there are now limited editions of them being produced (e.g. through the Port Club) which means its is possible to try something a bit different.
That said, I do always slightly worry that stuff made for cocktails might be a bit lower-quality than that which is advertised for drinking neat. After-all, the history of cocktails started with an attempt to improve poor quality spirits with ice, sweeteners and bitters. However, I will do my best to down-play my cynicism and see what these are like.