For The Love Of Port

Scheiny S wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:57 pm I've been wondering what the heck "Very Old" meant. Is something similar happening for Madeira? I think I've seen that.

If so, it is coincidence. Port and Madeira have different laws and I'm not as familiar with the Madeira laws so can't say for sure.

I don't think "Very Old" means anything in Madeira. They added the 50 year old category to help with old wines. There have been undocumented old wines released with the reserva designation. I believe this is similar to the muito velho designation for Ports.

I think it is similar to Old Vines, something that is accepted and has a different meaning depending on who you speak with.

I did see it a few times especially in whites before they created the categories, that's the only thing you could write to separate the quality aged white to the regular young ones.

I have a vague memory that "old" and "very old" do actually have meanings for Port. That vague memory says that to call a Port "old" on the label it must be at least 20 years old, and that to call a Port "very old" on the label it must be at least 40 years old. At the time of bottling, so it would never apply to a Vintage Port.

Which then led to each "very" meaning 20 years, and now we have Niepoort VV (which was significantly older than 60 years when it was bottled) and a handful of others using similar nomenclature. We tasted one from cask up in the Douro Superior in either 2018 or 2019 that was simply noted as "VVVV" on the barrel, or 100+ years old.

Unfortunately I don't remember where this vague memory comes from. It could be something I saw in the regulations once many years ago, or it could have been something that a producer told me, or it could be from something else entirely.