For The Love Of Port

I was recently tasting a bunch of non-vintage Madeiras and had the bottles lined up. Staring at the neck of the bottles I noticed the IVBAM "certificates" that covered the corks of the each of the bottles. In addition to a bottle or lot number, each label bore some type of alphabetical code.

Here are the letters I saw on each IVBAM tag:
"AB" - Blandy's Alvada
"G" - Blandy's 10 Year Old Malmsey
"AB" - Blandy's 15 Year Old Malmsey
"C" - Broadbent 10 Year Old Malmsey
"J" - Broadbent Rainwater
"E" - Borges Medium Dry
"H" - RWC Boston Bual

Does anyone know what these letter signify? I imagine its a code or designation of some type, but was hoping someone with a bit more experience could decipher the message on these bottles.

From what I understand, the codes could potentially tell you when the contents were bottled, but that's if the bottler used them immediately and if you had access the the IVBAM archieves. They're basically a tax stamp the bottlers purchase. They can potentially be bought and not used for some time afterwards.

Aren't the IVBAM tags essentially the same as the Port Selo de Guarantia?

If so, the letters are simply part of the serial number. Port's selo is 2 letters, 6 numbers, then 2 more numbers. But because of the way it is printed on the slip of paper, only the middle 6 numbers are easy to read.

Is it possible that something similar is going on with the IVBAM selo?

I think it is very possible Glenn. However, until we get word from Peter, I don't believe any speculation will suffice. I hope he'll stop by and don't doubt he or Reidar will know the answer to this.

I'd like to thank everyone for their insight.

Here's a photo of what I'm referring to...

If you look, you'll see a "D" on the tag.

Hi Scott!

I was curious as well and had to check with my "contact" at IVBAM. Here's the answer:

' Dear Niklas,

After confirming with our department responsible for certification, those letters refer to the series:

One letter – bottles capacity superior to 600ml;

Two letters – bottles capacity inferior to 600ml;

To each series there are numbers associated that can go from 000.001 to 999.999.

The series, besides the lot number, allows us to have a higher traceability of the wines because the numbers repeat in each series.'

Best,

Niklas Jörgensen

Niklas,

Thank you very much for the concise answer. I appreciate your asking a contact.

All the best,
Scott

dear Scott,
sorry for being late with my post. Niklas is right, the letters refer to the content of the bottles as well as marking individual series of seals. The general problem is that the producers get these series of labels "in bulk" from the IVBAM, but it is entirely up to the producers themselves when they will use the labels. So there is hardly any way for the IVBAM to keep track of bottling dates. Some producers have started to keep track of the dates themselves, but most don't. That is why many producers add an extra bottling date or at least a year of bottling on the producers label or on a paper tag. To make things even more complicated some of the old JNV paper seals also had letters, but these were not allways used the same way like the IVBAM or IVM seals. I have seen single letter JNV seals on miniatures, so their system shure differs. Some old JNV seals used a series number instead, like "Series No 07" and then the number of the label.
I took the picture with the 1901 Barbeito wine in 1998 or 1999 and the wine had been bottled two or three years before.
Best
Peter