1994 Tesco

[Alex Bridgeman]

Purchased yesterday at the very fair price of £18. Opened today and decanted through unbleached coffee filter paper - and leaving a generous amount of sludge in the funnel. Tasted at D+4.

Deep red in colour, very dark but just starting to lighten on the rim. Either opaque or 99% opaque - I can't quite make my mind up. Soft aromas on the nose, a hint of blackcurrant, a hint of applemint. Restrained and dry impact but sweet, ripe fruit floods through in the mid-palate. Soft tannins and gentle acidity deliver a very pleasant mid-weight palate that grows and develops in flavour. Hot acidity dominated aftertaste before this gives way to a very long finish of mild coffee and yellow gooseberries. Perhaps a modest 86/100 as it shows now.

I suspect that this is slightly closed and will benefit from a long decant. Luckily there is plenty left and I shall report how a 24 hour decant affects this port tomorrow.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Sadly, extended decanting for 24 and 48 hours did not really make any difference to this port.

[RAYC]

I must admit, my last couple of bottles of this have made me think these really should now wait for a while.

Though in the sales they are priced so keenly that it is hard to resist....in some ways a bit of a shame (in port terms) that so many bottles of this will be popped before their time because of this...