This house tends to produce quite full-bodied, rich, alcoholic, spirited vintage ports that never have a great deal of complexity or finesse but offer meaty, chocolaty, spicy, full-bodied, alcoholic flavors at the expense of elegance. The 1970 is big and powerful and just now reaching maturity.

This was a year marked by intense heat so fermentations were difficult. This very dry year made very thick skins so colour extraction was difficult. Some raisining contributed to sugars and the concentration of the wines. Then the nights cooled and fermentations calmed down a bit. Cockburn moved from 100% treading to new autovinifiers or the notorious movimosto pumping over system. Very dark ruby. (Darker than 1977.) A burnt, rather simple quality to this nose. Not much subtlety. Thick on the palate with very marked sweetness. Hot finish. Thick, sweet and almost New World! (JR)