空前绝后的波特酒品酒会

My second-floor room in the Carris hotel was a mere bottle’s throw across a cobbled street from the historic Factory House, a de facto clubhouse for the British port shippers in Oporto, northern Portugal. When I woke at 7am, I could see the Wedgwood-blue ballroom swarming with people hard at work decanting the three bottles of each of the 19 great vintage ports we were to taste that morning. When the tasting started at 11.30am, we were warned that this exercise was a one-off. That morning half of the world’s stock of Cockburn 1896, for example, would be opened, and there would be only four bottles of the 1912 left after our predations.

我在凯黎世酒店(Carris Hotel)二层的房间，与那个历史悠久的酒庄不过是一条鹅卵石铺就的小路的距离。这里是英国波特酒商在葡萄牙北部波尔图的俱乐部。当我早上7点醒来时，看到在那韦奇伍德蓝(wedgwood，英国著名瓷器，粉蓝色为其招牌色——译者注)色调的宴会厅里挤满了人，正专心致志地将我们即将品尝的19种极好的年份波特酒各醒三瓶。在11点半的品鉴会开始之初，我们便得到提醒说，这样的体验不会再有第二次。举个例子，在那个早晨，全世界一半的考克伯恩(Cockburn)1896都被打开了，而经过我们的扫荡之后，仅仅只有4瓶1912年份得以幸存。

Cockburn’s is the best-known name in port, thanks to Cockburn’s Special Reserve, a wine I would guess is hardly ever drunk by the tight-knit group of port producers in Oporto and the Douro Valley upriver of the port city. But in the first half of the last century Cockburn vintage ports were regarded as the finest in the world and Cockburn’s new owners and erstwhile competitors, the Symington family, who officially took over in 2010, are determined to restore the company’s reputation from mass market to fine wine.

考克伯恩作为最知名的波特酒，得益于它的特级珍藏(Special Reserve)，我猜这一款酒就连跟波尔图和斗罗河(Douro)上游河谷地区关系密切的波特酒商们也没有太过重视。但是在上个世纪前半叶，考克伯恩的年份波特酒被却是公认的世界最好，并且它的现任所有者(也是从前的竞争对手)辛明顿家族(Symington)在2010年正式接管这个酒庄之后，下定决心要将品牌的声誉从大众市场重新拉回到高端。

A Reserve ruby selling at about ￡10 a bottle all over the world, Cockburn’s Special Reserve was launched in 1969 as a sort of red sister to the then hugely successful Harveys Bristol Cream sherry. Until then the isolated port trade had pottered along hand-selling top-quality vintage ports perhaps three times a decade and satisfying the mass markets in France and the UK in particular with bulk shipments of young ruby and tawny.

一款珍藏红宝石波特酒在世界范围内的售价大约为10英镑一瓶，1969年推出的考克伯恩的特级珍藏与后来大获成功的Harveys Bristol Cream雪利酒颇有渊源。从那个时候开始，这一款高品质的年份波特酒开始供应英法的大众市场，红宝石波特酒以及茶色波特酒更是整批整批大量产出。

But as Cockburn’s owners stormed world markets, their reputation for fine wine waned. Cockburn’s vintage-port-producing record was eccentric to say the least. The company decided to ignore 1977, an incomparable year “declared as a vintage by virtually every other port shipper, releasing a lacklustre 1978 instead. The story goes that when the team in Oporto contacted head office in the UK, by now part of Allied Domecq, to suggest that a given year was good enough for a vintage port to be declared, they would be instructed instead to put all their efforts into ramping up production of the precious baby Cockburn’s Special Reserve.

但是随着考克伯恩的拥有者在世界市场上的扩张，它的高端葡萄酒声誉也渐渐衰落。比如考克伯恩的年份波特酒生产记录看起来就很古怪。这家公司决定略过1977这个被其他所有波特酒商都公认的不可多得的年份，而推出了一款毫无生气的1978作为替代。据说当时在波尔图的团队曾经跟在英国的总部(后并入联合利昂(Allied Lyons)集团)联系，建议说：那个被跳过的年份会产出足够好的年份酒，但他们得到的指示却是全力提升珍贵的考克伯恩特级珍藏的产量。

The owners had particular faith in the upper reaches of the Douro, way upstream of the Cima Corgo where most of the other top shippers bought their fruit, and accordingly in 1978 bought 169ha of land in a side valley at Vilari?a, now 126ha of vineyard. They also bought a further 261ha in 1989 when they acquired Quinta dos Canais, an upper Douro estate that had always made a major contribution to Cockburn vintage port and now has almost 100ha of vines, mainly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca.

酒庄主人对斗罗河上游流域的精华产区Cima Corgo极有信心，许多其他的高端酒商也在这里购买葡萄原料，于是1978年便在Vilari?a山谷买下169公顷的土地，其中126公顷为葡萄园。而到了1989年，他们又在斗罗河上游的Quinta dos Canais地区买下了261公顷的土地， 使之成为考克伯恩波特酒的主要原料来源地，如今有大约100公顷为葡萄酒，主要种植的是本地多瑞加(Touriga Nacional)和法国多瑞加(Touriga Franca)两种葡萄。

When Allied Domecq was dismembered in 2005, Cockburn was handed round drinks conglomerates like a hot potato, first offered to Pernod Ricard then to Beam Global, a company best known for its bourbon. Beam’s knowledge of and interest in fortified wines was skeletal but it was convinced that the Harveys Bristol Cream and Cockburn’s Special Reserve brands were worth something. Accordingly, the offer of the Symington family, already responsible for Dow, Graham and Warre ports, to make the wines for them was welcomed. In 2006, the Symingtons took over all the vineyards and the lodges of Cockburn, and, in 2010, acquired the brands and all the remaining stock, including the precious old bottles we were about to try.

当2005年联合利昂集团瓦解时，考克伯恩便成为了一个抢手货，先是被法国保乐力加集团(Pernod Ricard)获得，后来又归入以波本威士忌(Bourbon)闻名的Beam全球葡萄酒与烈酒公司(Beam Global)麾下。Beam对波特酒的了解以及兴趣都寥寥，但却坚信Harveys Bristol Cream和考克伯恩特级珍藏的品牌是有价值的。同时，生产道斯(Dow)、格兰姆(Graham)还有Warre等波特酒的辛明顿家族来接手这个品牌也让Beam求之不得。2006年，辛明顿家族接管了考克伯恩所有的葡萄园以及产业，2010年，取得整个品牌以及所有的库存，包括我们即将要品尝的珍贵的古董级佳酿。

The acquisition boosted Symington’s proportion of total port production from 16 per cent to 20 per cent, grew their vineyard holdings to nearly 1,000ha and ensured that Cockburn did not fall into the hands of their arch-rivals, the Taylor Fladgate Partnership. But the problem was that, with only the disappointing vintage ports of recent vintages in general circulation, the Symingtons didn’t really have a clear idea of how Cockburn vintage port tasted in its heyday.

这些收获让辛明顿家族在波特酒总产量上的比例从16%上升到20%，他们的葡萄园面积也达到了近1000公顷，也确保考克伯恩避免落入其主要的竞争对手Taylor Fladgate Partnership 之手。但问题是，守着一堆令人失望的近年份的波特酒，辛明顿家族也的确不太清楚要怎么做才能让考克伯恩的年份波特酒恢复到全盛时期的好品质。

Hence the recent retrospective tasting of Cockburn’s most admired vintage ports, tactfully omitting the disappointing recent years but starting with bottles from the small trial of undeclared 1977 that the Oporto team could not help making, way back to the famous 1896 vintage. Several dozen of us from all over Europe gathered in the Factory House in a valiant attempt to help the current generation of five Symington cousins to discern the style of wine they should aim for in future vintages.

因此，最近的回顾品鉴会都呈现的是考克伯恩最赞的年份波特酒，从最古老的1896年份，一直到当时波尔图团队并未参与酿造的少量未公布的1977年份，巧妙地回避了口碑不尽如人意的近年份产品。我们几十位来自欧洲各地的专业人士齐聚酒庄，希望能帮助辛明顿家族的第五代鉴别什么样的风格才是他们在未来的年份酒上需要努力的方向。

The Symingtons were all a bit nervous in advance of this “voyage of discovery because none of them had tasted any Cockburn older than 1950, but they need not have worried. I’d been lucky enough to enjoy a slightly similar retrospective tasting put on in London in the 1980s and the 1908 was every bit as glorious as I remembered it.

辛明顿家族的成员在这次“发现之旅举办之前都稍显紧张，因为他们谁也没有品尝过1950年之前的考克伯恩波特酒，但是他们也无需担心。我上世纪80年代曾经有幸在伦敦参与过类似的回顾品鉴会，1908年份跟我记忆中一样好。

“We can’t flick a switch to change the wines overnight, admitted joint managing director Paul Symington, “but with this tasting we want to see what was the essence that made Cockburn great in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For Peter Cobb, who attended the tasting and had worked for Cockburn, his family firm, from 1960 until his retirement, the secret was in the 1967, a vintage declared almost exclusively by Cockburn instead of the 1966. “They sought finesse, which is why they also favoured 1935 over 1934 and 1947 over 1948.

“我们不可能在一夜之间就让葡萄酒完全改变。合营总经理保罗·辛明顿(Paul Symington)说道，“但是有了这次品鉴会的帮助，我们就能认识到考克伯恩在19世纪末20世纪初能取得成功的最根本要素是什么。在参加过这次品鉴会，并且从1960年直到退休都在为考克伯恩，他的家族公司工作的彼得·柯布(Peter Cobb)看来, 秘密就在1967年份，这款年份酒几乎完全替代了1966年份。“他们在寻找策略，你得想想为什么人们喜欢1935年份多过1934年份，喜欢1947年份多过1948年份。

I asked Paul Symington after the tasting to describe the Cockburn house style he felt had been revealed and he suggested “a slightly austere dryness and bitterness like orange marmalade. Certainly the debut Cockburn vintage port produced by the Symingtons, the 2007, has a lift and freshness that distinguishes it from the more massive ports dominated by grapes grown in the Cima Corgo – and the family are presumably bucked by the fact that, after winemaker Charles Symington’s fine tuning of the Cockburn’s Special Reserve recipe, it was the only Reserve quality port to be garlanded in each of the three major UK wine competitions this year.

在品鉴会结束之后，我请保罗·辛明顿描述一下他感受到的考克伯恩品牌的风格，他回答说：“些微有些质朴清冷，以及一点点苦橙的涩味。当然，还有初次亮相的由辛明顿家族出品的2007年份考克伯恩年份波特酒，以清新之感让自己从Cima Corgo产区的其他大量波特酒中脱颖而出——在经过酿酒师查尔斯·辛明顿(Charles Symington)对考克伯恩特级珍藏的配方做了微调之后，这个家族很高兴看到这款品质上乘的珍藏波特酒在今年英国的三个主要葡萄酒大赛上一举夺魁。

Top Cockburn vintages

顶级考克伯恩年份酒

1908

1908

Still as fresh as a daisy and living proof that vintage port really is worth waiting for. Arguably the greatest Cockburn vintage. The wine, served by his grandfather, that lit the flame for my fellow wine writer Steven Spurrier.

依旧精气神十足，充满活力，值得期待。毫无争议是最棒的考克伯恩年份酒。我的同事，作家史蒂文·普瑞尔(Steven Spurrier)，品着由他的祖父倒上的一杯酒，觉得自己整个人都发亮了。

1927

1927

Legendary vintage which may have contained a mix of ripe and underripe grapes – but at 85 years old it works.

传奇的一款年份酒，据说在酿造中混合采用了成熟以及未成熟的葡萄——在85岁的高龄仍旧表现不错。

1963

1963

The vintage whose greatness saved the port trade that had been on its uppers throughout the 1950s. Still divine.

这款年份酒的伟大之处就在于在上世纪50年代拯救了波特酒的贸易。依然神圣。

The Symingtons were blessed with superb weather for their debut as producers of Cockburn vintage port. The 2007 can be found for ￡40-￡50 a bottle while the almost-as-delicious version made exclusively from Quinta dos Canais fruit is about ￡30.

作为考克伯恩年份波特酒的生产商，辛明顿家族为他们初次亮相的产品创造了得天独厚的好平台。2007年份波特酒每瓶售价大约为40英镑至50英镑，而跟它味道差不多的用Quinta dos Canais 葡萄酿造的酒却只需要大约30英镑。