For The Love Of Port

Again, a CellarTracker user has given me a puzzle. I suspect the the full and proper label is missing, but what confuses me is the capsule is quite different.


This is the only label on the bottle :

The capsule is red and says "Dow's Port" on the top. On the side, all it says is "Silva & Cosens" in a script + Country of Origin Portugal.


Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Andrew Hall
CellarTracker Director of Editorial & Support Services

Hi Andrew,
Can you post a picture of the overall bottle and the capsule? That may help.

The label on it would indicated some type of unfiltered Ruby or even a very lightly filtered Tawny. So really not too much help.

And Silva & Costens was the old owner of Dow's. In the latter 1800's Silva and Costens merged with Dow and Co and "Dow's" was then formed. Which eventually the Symington Family acquired.

I think this will come through... This is all I have.

Thanks. That was sort of my guess - Ruby. The user basically found several bottles and many have no labels at all. It would interesting to place a time frame on it, but not really super important.

S&C stopped being used on labels/capsules around the early 1960s when the Sym's took over full ownership of Dow's (they were a part owner since the early 1900's). So good likelihood that bottle is from the 1950's or earlier (I don't think brown glass was used for Dow's in the 60's that I recall ever seeing). Without better shots of the overall bottle it's rather hard to guess an actual age range for the bottle.

The harder part being, back then a lot of companies put out various levels of Ruby's for different markets, some meant to age a bit some not. Then there were Crusted Ports and of course VP's. It could really be any one of those. The only real way to tell is to cut the capsule and see if one can read what may be on the cork or push the cork in then bag it out and see what it says.

I don't advocating breaking the bottle, I hate to see these old ones get smashed and tossed out and taking their history with them.

Thanks! I will pass that on.

I seriously doubt it is a vintage port and probably some kind of ruby or crusted as Andy said. I have seen the same verbiage about port on different bottles, but that font is a first for me.

Were some Ruby's unfiltered back in the day? Would that make them more ageworthy (relatively speaking) if they were unfiltered?

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2020 8:48 pm Were some Ruby's unfiltered back in the day? Would that make them more ageworthy (relatively speaking) if they were unfiltered?

I have some "vintage character" ports with the same back label.

Mike J. W. wrote:Were some Ruby's unfiltered back in the day? Would that make them more ageworthy (relatively speaking) if they were unfiltered?

Yes. And yes.

Remember this was, generally, before LBV’s. So there was a lot of upper end Ruby’s that would be akin to a current unfiltered LBV. I’ve got some pics of old bottles I’ll try and find and post. Some really cool labels back then.

Thanks for the reply Andy. That's interesting. Approximately when did they stop this practice with Rubies?

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:37 pm Thanks for the reply Andy. That's interesting. Approximately when did they stop this practice with Rubies?

I don't think there was a specific year, but I'd probably say the end of the 1960's to early 1970's when LBV (of both types) really started taking off in popularity.

Here's one. You can see a Sandeman 3-star (the highest of the 1,2,3 "Star" Rubies) in the background. The Tinto Meio Seco on the left.

Very cool pictures Andy, thank you. You're right, the labels are very cool. Quite the variety of Rubies and other Ports. Some of those houses are long gone now.

Those yours, Andy?

Moses Botbol wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:18 am Those yours, Andy?

No

Hmm..

I have a question:

- Is there a shadow on the glass from where a label once lay?

If not, then this would have been a port laid down unlabelled to age before sale - a quality port rather than a standard ruby. So it could be vintage..