For The Love Of Port

Interesting bottles in that standard rubies very rarely survive for such long periods.

If the first photo shows the glass colour correctly, then that is a big giveaway as that shade of evenly coloured deep green glass suddenly made its debut in wine bottles in the mid sixties - previous green bottles having had a light brownish hue or an uneven colouration. About the same time, plastic topped T stoppers made their debut, so the combination of an old style wooden T stopper and that colour of glass makes me guess a bottling date of about 1966 - give or take a year.. - and probably UK bottled (hence no selos)

Tom Archer wrote:Interesting bottles in that standard rubies very rarely survive for such long periods.

If the first photo shows the glass colour correctly, then that is a big giveaway as that shade of evenly coloured deep green glass suddenly made its debut in wine bottles in the mid sixties - previous green bottles having had a light brownish hue or an uneven colouration. About the same time, plastic topped T stoppers made their debut, so the combination of an old style wooden T stopper and that colour of glass makes me guess a bottling date of about 1966 - give or take a year.. - and probably UK bottled (hence no selos)

It wasn't a wood t-cork. It was an all-cork t-cork. Pretty sure that was a pre-war thing??

It wasn't a wood t-cork. It was an all-cork t-cork. Pretty sure that was a pre-war thing??

Because so few pre-plastic T stoppers survive, I couldn't venture a timeline on their design evolution. However, that shade of deep green glass is very date indicative and definitely not pre-war..

Tom Archer wrote:

It wasn't a wood t-cork. It was an all-cork t-cork. Pretty sure that was a pre-war thing??

Because so few pre-plastic T stoppers survive, I couldn't venture a timeline on their design evolution. However, that shade of deep green glass is very date indicative and definitely not pre-war..

These experts on glass color would disagree with you. It's an amazing site that is even more nerdy than us. A lot to read about how glass bottles were made and how to tell about when they came from.

https://sha.org/bottle/colors.htm

Try looking at some actual port and wine bottles rather than a glass geeks site..

Both for port and claret that shade of even deep green quite suddenly appeared in the mid sixties and became widely used - but I own nearly a thousand bottles that pre-date that era and have handled many more, and can confirm that it simply wasn't used for standard wine bottles prior to then - trust me!

Tom Archer wrote:Try looking at some actual port and wine bottles rather than a glass geeks site..

Both for port and claret that shade of even deep green quite suddenly appeared in the mid sixties and became widely used - but I own nearly a thousand bottles that pre-date that era and have handled many more, and can confirm that it simply wasn't used for standard wine bottles prior to then - trust me!

Your comment was that shade of green didn't exist then. That's not the case, it was around back in the 1800's. While maybe not popular for wine bottles it was still around and could have been used. As that site says many times, dating bottles is not an easy task or exact science.

this is a really neat thread. i'm glad your first bottle was still tasty.

Andy Velebil wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:You sure it was actually plastic?

Yes, I still have it at home :)

Though I said some type of plastic. I'm no expert on what was used back then, but it looks and feels like plastic.

Did some of the old Niepoort Garrafaira come with T Cork?