Having returned home for the best part of two weeks with no travel planned now until September, I decided to celebrate in the way that we all know - and open a bottle of extra-special port. The first bottle that came to hand from Death Row was a bottle of Tesco's 1994 VP from the Symingtons.
Decanted cleanly, a very dark red colour, very youthful looking, not a lot of coarse sediment but a fair amount of fine stuff that needed to be filtered out. The most stunning thing about this wine was the incredible smell of mashed bananas that it gave off as it was going into the decanter.
1 hour
Tasted after 1 hour. The colour has hardly changed but the nose has lost all that banana tone to be replaced with a light and delicate perfumed nose of roses and redcurrants. Dry entry, rather hollow, but pleasant development in the midpalate with mature fruit and some meat juice flavours. A little too much alcohol on swallowing, but then there are some very pleasant cedar and tobacco flavours on an aftertaste of very respectable length. On this showing, this is a perfectly respectable wine, although below average compared to its peers - but then its price is certainly far below that of its peers!
More notes later.
Alex
1994 Tesco
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Alex Bridgeman
- Graham’s 1948
- Posts: 14902
- Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
- Location: Berkshire, UK
1994 Tesco
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
-
Alex Bridgeman
- Graham’s 1948
- Posts: 14902
- Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
- Location: Berkshire, UK
5 hours
Colour still as deep in the centre, but now with a touch of orange at the rim. The spirit is more apparent on the nose, but brings with it blackberries and fresh cut grass. In the mouth it still brings a hollow, dry entry but the midpalate develops nicely, bringing ripe, sweet blackberries, some red liquorice and many more flavour. The aftertaste still has that initial burn but then lasts longer that earlier and goes through several phases, finishing with a lovely dark chocolate that lingers for a long time.
Compared to other vintage ports, this is still a weak example and is below average, but it has many redeeming factors including the very long aftertaste and the decently low price (£14 per bottle). However, marking strictly according to Tom's scale I rate this as 3/3 or 87/100.
Alex
Colour still as deep in the centre, but now with a touch of orange at the rim. The spirit is more apparent on the nose, but brings with it blackberries and fresh cut grass. In the mouth it still brings a hollow, dry entry but the midpalate develops nicely, bringing ripe, sweet blackberries, some red liquorice and many more flavour. The aftertaste still has that initial burn but then lasts longer that earlier and goes through several phases, finishing with a lovely dark chocolate that lingers for a long time.
Compared to other vintage ports, this is still a weak example and is below average, but it has many redeeming factors including the very long aftertaste and the decently low price (£14 per bottle). However, marking strictly according to Tom's scale I rate this as 3/3 or 87/100.
Alex
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.