Vintage - Word problem

[Isabel Oliveira]

Dear all thank you for adding me.

I'd like your help on 2 word problems:

i) On the website, http://www.fortheloveofport.com/faqs/port-faqs#Ruby, in the following sentences, does vintage mean the type of wine or vintage as harvest? I am confused. If they mean the same how can people who know littl about Port differenciate between Vintage = Harvest= Colheita in Portuguese and Vintage = Type of wine?

"It is not uncommon to see SQVPs produced in consecutive vintages."

...is an elegant style of Port made from the grapes of a single harvest, like a Colheita and therefore has a vintage date on the bottle.

Tawny that is balanced by a fifty five year old blend...and may have many different vintages blended into the same "lot"

ii) Are there other names in English for vindima, or is it only picking the grapes?

Thank you all.

[Eric Ifune]

It can be confusing!
Context is everything. When talking about a type of Port, Vintage Port is Port from a declared year bottled at approximately two years after vinification and bottle aged. It tends to refer to a firm's flagship bottle aged Port.
SQVP tends to refer to bottle aged wines vinified similarly to Vintage Ports but usually from nondeclared years and not as prestigious as Vintage Ports, although there are many, many exceptions. There are a few SQVP from declared years. Also some firms produce only SQVPs.
Colheita tends to refer to a single harvest (of a single year) cask aged Port.
I know others with more knowledge will probably chime in.

[Glenn E.]

In English, and especially here on this forum, we capitalize Vintage Port so that it is obvious that we are talking about the wine. We also typically use both words - Vintage Port or often VP - when we're talking about the wine. When used in all lower case, vintage almost always refers to the year that the grapes were harvested.

In English, Colheita is used only to refer to the type of aged tawny Port that comes from a single vintage.