Your 1994 favourites VP.

[Eric Menchen]

Moses, Do *not* open the 1994 Vesuvio. You will be ruined for all other Ports.

I concur. Send them to me and I will protect you.

I currently own 1994 Broadbent, Churchill's, Delaforce, Martinez, Quinta do Crasto, Quinta do Passadouro, Quinta do Vesuvio, and Smith Woodhouse. Most of these are just one or two bottles except the Vesuvio, which I've had (ruining me for all other Ports), and the Martinez. I'll pop a Martinez as soon as they are shipped to me to see if I found a hidden gem or just got a good deal on a run-of-the-mill VP.

[Moses Botbol]

I currently own 1994 Broadbent, Churchill's, Delaforce, Martinez, Quinta do Crasto, Quinta do Passadouro, Quinta do Vesuvio, and Smith Woodhouse. Most of these are just one or two bottles except the Vesuvio, which I've had (ruining me for all other Ports), and the Martinez. I'll pop a Martinez as soon as they are shipped to me to see if I found a hidden gem or just got a good deal on a run-of-the-mill VP.

I'd like to get a case of the Martinez. I do not have any of any vintage. I passed on a few good offers on 1994 and kind of regret it, but I can't buy them all...

I would expect it to be good. All of the few Martinez vintages I have tried have been solid.

[Derek T.]

I'd like to get a case of the Martinez. I do not have any of any vintage. I passed on a few good offers on 1994 and kind of regret it, but I can't buy them all...

I would expect it to be good. All of the few Martinez vintages I have tried have been solid.

Martinez 94 is fabulous juice - I will be drinking one with Alex B next Tuesday

[Moses Botbol]

Martinez 94 is fabulous juice - I will be drinking one with Alex B next Tuesday

Bastards

[Derek T.]

Martinez 94 is fabulous juice - I will be drinking one with Alex B next Tuesday

Bastards

I don't suppose it will make you feel any better if I tell you we will also be having the Graham, Kopke, Noval, Quarles Harris, Vesuvio and Warre 94s to help was down the Martinez?

[Moses Botbol]

I don't suppose it will make you feel any better if I tell you we will also be having the Graham, Kopke, Noval, Quarles Harris, Vesuvio and Warre 94s to help was down the Martinez?

Between the two of you? I'll be quite impressed when I see the empty decanters picture

[Andy Velebil]

I don't suppose it will make you feel any better if I tell you we will also be having the Graham, Kopke, Noval, Quarles Harris, Vesuvio and Warre 94s to help was down the Martinez?

Between the two of you? I'll be quite impressed when I see the empty decanters picture

You obvioulsy haven't drank with these two

[Derek T.]

Actually, there are three of us - and some will be from half bottles

[Roy Hersh]

and some will be from half bottles

Wimps!

[Glenn E.]

Wimps!

Yeah, I thought those Brits were supposed to be big drinkers?

[Al B.]

Interestingly enough, my overwhelming impression from the six 1994s that we tasted was that these have finally shut down!

None of the wines that I've had before were as enjoyable as the last time. All were angular and out of balance, showing lots of acidity and little fruit.

Tuck these away for 5-6 years and enjoy them when they next start to show what they can deliver.

(Or open them now, decide they're horrible and sell your remaining bottles to me for next to nothing.)

[Roy Hersh]

1994's closed? Alex, you are scaring me as this sounds way too much like a guy named Andy V. who has been saying this for a year or two now.

It is certainly possible. I know you've read the brilliant responses to the "Port shut down" in the A QUESTION FOR THE PORT TRADE area of the newsletter a few months ago when the shippers added their opinions about this issue.

Then again, what is a rather small possibility is: the "WNFH Syndrom" (aka the: Wine Night From Hell). It has only happened to me a handful of times in my 30 years of drinking wine ... but each is memorable. This happens, not with a rare example of MANY cork infested bottles, which is maddening in itself ... but when an entire group of wines and only in 1 case, Port wine ... just absolutely fail to deliver what is expected of them from previous experience ... and appear not to drink nearly as well. It is a strange phenomenon that can not be explained. Sometimes, and I am not joking here, it can be a disturbance in a weather pattern and especially high or low barometric pressure or extremes in temps ... however, a couple of these WNFH had nothing to do with either.

For example, a Dominus vertical tasting ... where not one of our 8 tasters in my STG (Seattle Tasting Group) which includes the likes of Eric LeVine (CellarTracker) and other well know local winos ... where not a single bottle was within 3-5 points of its typical range. I brought the 1991 Dominus that night. It is one of the all-time greats in terms of ANY CA wine ever made. I have substituted this as a "blind ringer" in some very high end Bordeaux tastings with friends and winemakers who were 100% fooled and could not tell it was a domestic wine ... even once they were shown the unsheathed bottle. On the WNFH it was not corked and not seemingly defective but only had 70% of its normal greatness appear. I was blown away, but then again the 1994 and 1997 and 2001 ... none of these delivered either. These are all extraordinary wines. Lesser great vintages like 1992 and 1995 also did not provide nearly what we had all grown accustomed to.

I have had this happen four or five other times. With Port, maybe once or twice. Thinking of a recent example (although there was a heat wave here) we had a bunch of fantastic Ports in our lineup recently when Oscar was in town, going back to a sound 1937 Colheita. But in general, with Ports (VP & Colheita) we've all mostly had before that night ... nothing was showing as it typically had in the past. It happens and there's no explanation. Yes there was a heat wave, but we had rented an air-conditioned room to drink in. Nobody traveled any further than 45 minutes and half of us were within 10 miles of the venue. These type of anomalies just have no rhyme or reason. Reading your comment, I just wondered if you had fallen prisoner to one of these types of WNFH?

I am certainly avoiding insisting that 1994's could not possibly be shutting down ... I just can't bear to listen to Andy's ... "I told you so."

[Moses Botbol]

Then again, what is a rather small possibility is: the "WNFH Syndrom" (aka the: Wine Night From Hell). It has only happened to me a handful of times in my 30 years of drinking wine ... but each is memorable.

This happened to a Graham vertical I went to in NYC this spring. Not one vintage was "excellent" and all of them I had tried at least once. Bottles were from different sources and no corked bottles, but every bottle had some issue with it. Weird and disappointing at the time. It was still a fun evening and no regrets.

[Andy Velebil]

1994's closed? Alex, you are scaring me as this sounds way too much like a guy named Andy V. who has been saying this for a year or two now.



I am certainly avoiding insisting that 1994's could not possibly be shutting down ... I just can't bear to listen to Andy's ... "I told you so."

I told you so

[Andy Velebil]

On a serious note though, in the past year or so I've seen some of the 1994's start to tighten up. As Roy can attest to my views on this topic. They tended to be very tannic and fruity until that time, now that fruit has seemed to finally start to tighten up and go into hiding. It was something I first noticed on the nose, then slowly on the palate. Interesting is how late some of them seem to be doing this. The 1994 Taylor's showed some definite differences on the palate between the three bottles drunk 6-10 months apart. Whereas the first showed huge fruit and chocolate, the last two were far more restrained in the fruit department and appeared to be closing down. It was something that was quite apparent to me at the Port Gala where we did a horizontal of 1994's. Some of the 2000's I've had in the past year have definitely started to close up as well, Quinta do Noval to name one, and they are 6 years younger.

Although the 1994 Graham's is one where it seems to have finally started to slowly come out of a tight phase and the fruit is becoming more expressive again. Yet the 1994 Vesuvio still has yet to show any signs of closing up. So I wouldn't make a blanket statement that all 1994's are closing up, but I do believe that some are now starting to.