Vinho Do Porto Garantia numbers

[N Bizall]

Anybody know what the numbers mean on the vinho do Porto garantia? Is it something the average consumer can decipher or is it just something for the manufacturer?

[Glenn E.]

From the consumer's point of view, they're just a series of random numbers.

It's possible to trace them backwards, but in order to do so you have to talk to the IVDP and the producer. A couple of people here have done that before... Andy has, as I recall, so they might be able to give you a few more details. But there's little rhyme or reason to them from the consumer's point of view.

[Moses Botbol]

We had a 1970 Gonzalez Byass VP this weekend that had first edition Selo tags. We assumed they had bought them much earlier and just attached them as they were bottled. The Selo was over the leaded capsule.

[Andy Velebil]

The numbers can be tracked back to a general bottling time frame and thus a type of Port it was used on. It may not be able to tell you exactly what Port though. To do that would mean getting a hold of the Producer and having them research it through their records and the IVDP's.

[Christian Gollnick]

The Port Wine Institute has - on their Portuguese web-page, not on the English one - a link where you can put the selo-numbers in... However, I think Christmas and Eastern have to be on the same day to get a hit... at least the 5 or 6 numbers I tried yesterday didn't lead to any results...

http://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=16 ... 2&idioma=0

[Andy Velebil]

The Port Wine Institute has - on their Portuguese web-page, not on the English one - a link where you can put the selo-numbers in... However, I think Christmas and Eastern have to be on the same day to get a hit... at least the 5 or 6 numbers I tried yesterday didn't lead to any results...

http://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=16 ... 2&idioma=0

It won't even access the page for me, I get an error message.

IIRC, this was a test thing they started a few years ago. I recall we spoke about it here some time ago. However, that would only work with (then?) recently bottled/labeled Ports from those participating in the program. No idea if current Selo's are still being updated in it but I would hazard a guess that they probably are not.


EDIT: Here's the link to the discussion. http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... ber#p81508
Only some producers were taking part in it back in 2012. That said, I'm sticking with my guess that participation in this by producers has stopped.