1994 Fonseca Vintage Port

[Thomas V]

After being decanted for roughly 26 hours the Fonseca had a somewhat underplayed scent. Dark brown colour when zero transparency. The juice itself had a very nice level of sweetness and tangible tannins that caressed my mouth and kept me on my toes. Predominant plums and brown sugar flavours with a mouthwatering twist of mint. At its current state the Fonseca is absolutely delicious, but I have zero doubt that it has the structure and depth of flavour to mature and improve immensely over the next 20-30 years.

Independently of each other my friend Martin rated it at 94-95 points while I being a bit more stingy gave it a hard 94 points though with room for improvement. Still lower than the 1994 Vesuvio that I tasted less than 3 months ago which I rated at a 95+ points. But I would not place the bottling we had as being in a troublesome teenage stage at the moment. It was a very enjoyable experience, though if you only have 1-2 bottles in your cellar I would refrain from opening them the next 10 years at least.

94 points.

[Roy Hersh]

I liked your description, Thomas!


Is Martin, Mr. Peeters?

[Thomas V]

I liked your description, Thomas!

Is Martin, Mr. Peeters?

Thanks Roy, appreciate it.

Martin is the co founder of Aarhus Portwine Club and his last name is Høiby, so it is no the person you are referencing. But I am sure given the chance that Martin would love to meet up with some of you FTLOP while he is staying in Cleveland for 1½ years.

[Roy Hersh]

On our Port Harvest Tour that begins today is a knowledgeable Port enthusiast from Cleveland. So if your friend wants to meet others locally, have him send me an email and I'll do the introduction. After all, I am also aware of a few Port wine events that will take place in Cleveland in October.

[Thomas V]

I told Martin about it and he will contact you per e-mail.

Thank you for the hookup. It is appreciated highly.

[Roy Hersh]

I had this Port in a dual vertical, alongside Taylor. For the first time ever, the Fonseca won the day. Not the better score, for me, but it was drinking better at the moment.

[Thomas V]

I had this Port in a dual vertical, alongside Taylor. For the first time ever, the Fonseca won the day. Not the better score, for me, but it was drinking better at the moment.

Interesting. Was it a blind tasting? And how recent was it?

As you can see from my note I agree with you whole heartedly. This Fonseca is drinking very nicely at the moment. Nothing like the Graham's 94 I had in the spring that was a huge let down.

[Glenn E.]

I've had 1994 Fonseca, Graham, and Taylor side-by-side blind 3 times that I can recall. Graham never won (the tasting), but was second in all three. Fonseca and Taylor each won once, but finished 4th or lower in both other examples. As I recall, Vesuvio won the third tasting.

So I generally consider Graham the best VP from 1994 because at least for me it has been consistently excellent. I'd probably go with Fonseca or Vesuvio next.

So I generally