Here's an image of a bottle of port:
Note the white splotch near the bottom. What is that? Is that something the shippers use to indicate something specific? I ask because it isn't the first time I've seen it. I recently bought a Dow VP (2000 or 2003) from a local retailer that had a similar mark.
Those are whitewash, and they're there so that you can identify which side of the bottle is "up" when it is lying in your cellar.
Why does this matter? Because Vintage Port throws off a considerable amount of sediment, and you want to make sure that the bottle is always lying the same way in your cellar. Paper labels are glued on, but often fall off when a bottle has been in a properly humidified cellar for many years. Whitewash is basically permanent, so that little splotch always lets you know which side of the bottle should be up even if the labels have fallen off.
Glenn has it right. The official term used by the trade is, "splash mark" as they were literally hand painted on bottles while in enormous stacks, often times as "shiners" in other words, bottles stacked in large bins, without labels nor usually their capsules.
Its being done less and less these days as it's very labor intensive and expensive to pay someone to stand there and paint a splash on all those bottles. Plus many bottles now have a raised notch in the glass, on the bottom, that they use as the "up" part in lue of the white paint. At least that was what was told to me a few years ago in Portugal. Interestingly is that Niepoort is the only producer I know of that the splash or notch is on the "down" part of bottle.
Roy Hersh wrote:Niepoort follows no rules. Dirk is a "contrarian" in every sense of the word and I say that with the best of intentions and admiration.
yes he is...and I must say it is a nice departure from the norm at times.
