Should I be concerned on two different labels of 1977 Warres

[Mike Koob]

I recently purchased some 1977 Warres from two highly regarded wine stores. I noticed that the bottles I received from one store had white labels and the one bottle I ordered from the other store had a black label. They both say vintage port and the bottles have the Warres name in raised glass above the label. I have never seen the black label before. Should I be concerned or is there a simple explanation?
Thanks,
Michael P. Koob

[Richard Henderson]

I am sure Roy will ride to the rescue with a definite answer but, I have many bottles of port from the same year ,same house ,that are not alike.

If the glass says Warre's , I beleve it is Warre's. I don't think there is any "fake" Warre's out there!

[Alex K.]

They will be different bottlings. I've just been discussing the bottling of my Warre's 1963 with Stevie Cage. His bottle was an Oporto bottling and mine was Corney and Barrow, so bottled in London. Both are Warre's. Mine has no label at all.

[Stuart Chatfield]

KillerB's point relates to pre-75s when there were Oporto bottlings and London (and other!) bottlings. In those days there were numerous labels with marked differences. From 75 onwards this didn't happen.

That said, I have seen some limited variation in labels post-70 but not so much. It has usually been much less marked than early one with the addition of a few words such as "imported for/by the Wine Soc." for instance.

I don't think I've seen a black Warre label, though some producers did have some different special labels to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee that year. Also I've had bottles with v. good provenance where the lables have rotted and poorly-made substitute lables have been made. I'm sure it is OK. The cork will reveal all as I doubt you could fake 26 years of cork decay. As someone else has said, there surely aren't any fake Warre 77s? It would cost more to fake than to buy a real one!

[Alex K.]

D'oh - two years out, how unlucky is that? Just checked my 1980 and that is a white label. Let's face it, if you were going to make a fake you would at least get the label colour righht, wouldn't you?

[Mike Koob]

Thanks to everyone for their feed back. My assumption was they were not fakes. We are having a dinner party tonight so what a great excuse to open one of the 1977 Warres with the black label. I will post my tasting notes over the weekend.
Thanks,