For The Love Of Port

I've recently bought a bottle of the 1834 Barbeito Malvazia from their wine shop in Funchal. It is a stenciled bottled but has no back label or other indication of bottling date. I've also a couple of bottles I bought a few years ago from the Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma, California. These have a paper label with a back label indicating a bottling date of 02/2000. Is the bottle from the shop a newer bottling? Does anyone know the bottling date?
Thanks for any help!

Eric,

I don't know the answer but we could contact them directly if you'd like to really know?

That might be a good idea. Not that I think the wines will taste that different, but I am curious. There can't be that much left.

Eric,
I would guess that the bottles that they sell directly from the shop are bottled on a short-term basis. I used to think that I could backtrack the bottling date using the IVM paper seal, but this is not the truth. The IVM issues complete batches of paper seals to the producers, and the producers use the seals up as it fits them. So there is no way of telling the bottling date from the seal. Also as far as I know the producers keep little track of the seals and they date they used them. As they see the current batch of seals run out, they just get another one from the IVM.
I think it is safe to say that the bottle in the shop can only be a few months old.
Best
Peter

Peter,
Thank you for the info. Good stuff to know.

Interesting to say the least. The Port Wine Institute on the other hand requires a log of all of the seals used so they can track the date, producer and usually the vintage, however as I understand it, they do not keep track of the specific category of Port that the Selo da Garantia is used for, that information in kept by the producer.