For The Love Of Port

I found two different bottling of 1977 Fonseca's VP and I wondered if there was any difference in them besides the labeling.

#1 with a selo under the foil, label saying "Fonseca's Finest 1977 Vintage Port", and with an importer label for "The Stacole Co.":
...

#2 with a selo over the foil, no 'Finest' in the name, and no importer label. Haven't tried #2 yet, but #1 was excellent.
...

The one with the Selo over the top of the capsule is a late release from the around the mid. 1990’s and imported to the USA by their importer here Kobrand

I can’t see the front of the Selo on the other but suspect it’s an original release (or close to it) based on the label.

Andy Velebil wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:15 am The one with the Selo over the top of the capsule is a late release from the around the mid. 1990’s and imported to the USA by their importer here Kobrand

I can’t see the front of the Selo on the other but suspect it’s an original release (or close to it) based on the label.

How do you know that?

I will share the full selo once I get home, but I wonder how it is possible to have a later release of a VP. Was it bottled (in 1979) and was stored w/o labels? And label were added later when the port was sold to Kobrand?

Yev Nyden wrote:I will share the full selo once I get home, but I wonder how it is possible to have a later release of a VP. Was it bottled (in 1979) and was stored w/o labels? And label were added later when the port was sold to Kobrand?

While becoming less today, in years past producers made a lot of VP. They would do an initial release then at various times, years later, would do subsequent “ex-cellars” releases. Bottles that were not initially released are stored in the producers cellar in Gaia without labels. Hence, when they get released later, there’s a new Selo and a new label that is applied.

Kobrand is just their importer/distributor in the USA and by law that must be on the label.

That makes sense. Thank you, Andy!

Email sent