1994 Fonseca Vintage Port

[Daniel]

Sometimes you just must open something special. The situation requires it. This was my third bottle of 94 Fonseca in the last four years. No opportunity for an adequate decant. Two hours in the decanter and we are ready to pour. This is a deeep, rich, intense port, not too sweet, but incredibly rich and dense on the palate. Dark Plum, Tobacco, and Tar flavors highlight this wine. Really good and an incredibly long finish.

Probably not getting a fair evaluation with such a short decant, but it is still obvious how good this wine is. It doesn't seem to have changed at all over the past 4 years. A wine for the ages.

Question? I have a few bottles of the 92 Fonseca. How does it compare and which will mature faster?

Thanks in advance,

Daniel

[Robert O.]

Daniel, I am fairly new to Port so I can't tell you how the '92 will age compared to the '94, but I tried the '92 back in July and felt it was a bit closed. I think the '92 has a ways to go still. I am not planning on opening another bottle for at least 5 years.

[Alan Gardner]

This note is extracted from a Blind Tasting on 29 May 2009 of 6 wines. The tasting compared Taylor, Fonseca Warre’s 1994 and 1997 vintages. All came from the same cellar and were decanted about 2 hours before the tasting. The tasting notes are mine, but there was also a group ranking (9 tasters).
No specific notes on colour, as all were similar – deep ruby (although the 94’s were slightly deeper in colour than the 97’s).

1994 Fonseca (poured as wine D)
On nose, very structured fruit – deep and intense with almost a metallic backbone (? Iron). On the palate everything there and in perfect balance with great fruit right through to the long finish. Great now but a long life ahead.
My ranking 1st (by a wide margin). Group ranking tied for 1st (3-way tie).