Dow's Vintage Port 1994

Dow's Vintage Port 1994 offers focused blackcurrant fruit and liquorice aromas, followed by a seductive, muscular palate. Peppery tannins integrate with concentrated fruit, while bright acidity supports remarkable structure, balance, and a persistent finish with impressive depth and freshness.

Food Pairing: Pairs best with rich chocolate desserts, blue cheese, walnuts, and dried fruits.

99 Points - Decanter

This was my pick of the vintage when it was first declared in 1996, and nearly 30 years later I feel fully justified in recommending it again. Retaining its deep colour, opening up to reveal ripe, exotic aromas of gum cistus, eucalypt and mint, so very expressive of the Douro. Ripe, quite powerful and still tight-knit with lovely rich, minty fruit, broad yet firm, tannins rising to a fresh, gripping, opulent finish (especially for Dow in its customary drier style). Now glorious to drink - it should last a lifetime.

97 Points - Wine Spectator

A blackstrap, powerful Port. Black, with intense aromas of raspberries, raisins, flowers and stems. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with a long, rich finish. Tannins pull at your palate. A wine for the future.--Dow vertical. Best after 2008.

96 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The massive 1994 is unquestionably the finest Dow I have tasted since the 1977. This opaque purple-colored wine is not as developed or flamboyant as Fonseca, but it is super-concentrated and multi-layered, with huge masses of fruit and some tannin in the finish. This is a slightly drier style than Fonseca or Graham's, but it appears to be a classic, majestic, enormously constituted 1994 that should age effortlessly for three decades or more. It is one of the stars of the vintage.