For The Love Of Port

I came across this site a few days ago and considering the hours I have since spent on it, I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing . . . .

My question: I recently purchased two bottles of the 1966 Graham VP for my 40th birthday celebration. When they arrived I found that they had obviously newer labels. I purchased them from a highly reputable store and the provenance was known, so few concerns about authenticity, but I was a little taken aback. I admit to being relieved when I drew the cork and it was marked "Vintage 1966."

Relabeled bottles are new to my VP experience. For the future, does anyone have any insight, information, cautions, etc, on the subject of relabeled VPs?

Thanks much

Tyler,

Its not that unusual and (in my experience) generally occurs under two sets of circumstances:

(i) a shipper or merchant has held the bottles in storage in Oporto or locally after shipping. Either the labels had rotted off or the bottles were not labelled until released for sale. If the release was relatively recent, the labels will look brand new.

(ii) a merchant has acquired the bottles from a reputable source, knows with certainty what they are, and has put their own replacement label on the bottle to reassure potential customers. I recently bought a couple of bottles that fall into this category and I am perfectly happy with them.

Its also possible that you have bought a couple of bottles that have been stored in absolutely perfect conditions - so much so that despite 40 years of age, the labels are untouched by the effects of time!

Alex

Alex,

Thanks for the information. These labels were clearly made on a modern laser printer in plain black and white -- they look rather like the "generic" grocery labels that enjoyed a brief vogue a few years back.

It sounds like it comes down again to reputable sources.