For The Love Of Port

I'm in the process of entering all of my Port (and wine) into a spreadsheet I developed. Is there any way to tell when a VP (or SQVP) was bottled based on the selo? Or am I just better off assuming it's 2 years from the Vintage date?

IIRC the bottling year is required on the label. Which, of course, doesn't help if there's no label.

Legally, Vintage Port must be bottled between the 18th month and the 30th month after harvest. Which in practical terms means between March and March with years 2 and 3 years after the harvest year. I.e. This year's VP, which is about to start harvest, must be bottled between March of 2027 and March of 2028.

That usually means March of year+2. But occasionally you'll see one bottled in year+3, and even more rarely you'll see one that was bottled in both. I'm looking at you, 1967 Taylor Vargellas. TV67 was bottled in both 1969 and 1970, and in both cases in both England and Porto. So there are nominally 4 bottlings of it, but since there are very probably multiple English bottlers in both years... it could be a dozen or more, and those English bottlers won't necessarily have bottled at the same time. In fact it's very likely that they did not, so there are probably bottlings of TV67 that span the entire legal range of 18 to 30 months.

But also... I don't recall off the top of my head when the 18 to 30 month law went into effect. There are "Vintage Ports" from long ago that were bottled 5, 6, even 7 years after harvest.

Glenn E. wrote: ↑Thu Aug 21, 2025 4:14 pm IIRC the bottling year is required on the label. Which, of course, doesn't help if there's no label.

Legally, Vintage Port must be bottled between the 18th month and the 30th month after harvest. Which in practical terms means between March and March with years 2 and 3 years after the harvest year. I.e. This year's VP, which is about to start harvest, must be bottled between March of 2027 and March of 2028.

I've looked on some of the bottles and I just can't find it. Some have it and others don't. I've only logged 18 bottles into my spreadsheet so far and not all of them are VP or SQVP. The bottles I have logged in so far are from the 90's. Not sure if that rule about bottling date on the label was in effect back then.

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑Thu Aug 21, 2025 4:19 pm

Glenn E. wrote: ↑Thu Aug 21, 2025 4:14 pm IIRC the bottling year is required on the label. Which, of course, doesn't help if there's no label.

Legally, Vintage Port must be bottled between the 18th month and the 30th month after harvest. Which in practical terms means between March and March with years 2 and 3 years after the harvest year. I.e. This year's VP, which is about to start harvest, must be bottled between March of 2027 and March of 2028.

I've looked on some of the bottles and I just can't find it. Some have it and others don't. I've only logged 18 bottles into my spreadsheet so far and not all of them are VP or SQVP. The bottles I have logged in so far are from the 90's. Not sure if that rule about bottling date on the label was in effect back then.

Yeah, printing it on the label might be a 2000's era rule change.

I'm pretty sure 18-30 months has been the law since the 70's at minimum, and possibly as far back as the 30's (the IVP was created in 1933).

Modern rules for bottling port were changed in the late 1940’s.

Prior to that it was, largely, a free for all. Though most producers were still in the 2-3 yrs for VP. Some were much longer.

Selos are for tax purposes. The lodges buy them but don't have to use them immediately. I doubt most keep track of which lot of selos are used for which bottling run. A few Madeira producers keep track, but their bottling numbers are way, way less.

Eric Ifune wrote:Selos are for tax purposes. The lodges buy them but don't have to use them immediately. I doubt most keep track of which lot of selos are used for which bottling run. A few Madeira producers keep track, but their bottling numbers are way, way less.

Selo’s are tracked. At least to a bottling time and general type of port.