For The Love Of Port

1st night: Had a glass within an hour after opening. Totally unrevealing, this port is way too young to be opened. The only thing I can detect is dark bittersweet chocolate. Put back under vacuvin.

2nd night: What a difference a day makes. Hint of buttered popcorn, black cherry, and woodsmoke on the nose. It is dense and viscous, with straight-ahead port flavors and a dark finish. Fairly one-dimensional.

3rd night: Bit of a varnishy nose, this has really smoothed out on the palate with black cherry, a touch of hazelnut, and a very long finish.

4th night: Cherry and cigar box on the nose. A gush of black cherry fruit on palate with a dab of walnuts on the finish. This is at its best tonight; extrapolating, I'm drinking this at age 14 and its needs at least another 10 if not 15 years in the cellar to come into its own. Its a good port but comes shy of greatness.

Kurt,

Another blast from the past. So good to have you back here too. I have always been impressed by your palate and notes so this is great to read.

I had this wine a few weeks ago and agree with your assessment re: needling lots more time. The Nacional from 1994 is even crazier and the LBV from 1994, is my all time favorite, although a bottle I opened from my London cellar, showed quite poorly while over in the UK earlier this month.

The 1994 Vintage Port is still a monster though and needs over a decade as you have pointed out in your post. I think it will eventually flesh out to be a very fine VP, but it will not be easy to drink over the short term, unless like you, people will realize this is not one that will be enjoyable right away and to baby it with patience.

Please do come back and share with us more often. In fact, it would be great to meet you in person and if you want to come join us at the end of January here in Seattle for the that would be outstanding!

Roy,
Thanks for your reply. I was expecting more from the '94 Noval in terms of layering and complexity, but I guess we shall see if that develops over time. I agree with you that it is not that approachable right now. The January tasting sounds like fun. We shall see on that as well.