For The Love Of Port

I have noticed that on my older 70's and 80's ports, most if not all VP's have the white paint splash on the bottle for storage. However, how come the newer vintages no longer come with it? Has the label replaced the paint? Also, on the newer bottles without the paint, do I just store with the label side up?

I was told by someone - I can't remember who - that the splash of paint has been replaced with a notch that is moulded into in the base of the bottle.

But I always store my bottles with the label upwards.

Alex

Alex is correct.

It became to labor intensive which equated to an expense that was easy to circumvent.

I always store my Ports with the labels up too.

For what I've read and have been told, is that the "lick of paint" is an old tradition from the times when one would bring a lot of bottles to a merchant to be bottled. The bottles would then be placed in a bin and be given a lick of paint / chalk. This way, the butler would know which way to hold the bottle in decanting.

IMO, it also has to do with the quality of labels: nowadays, they are more like stickers than the glued-on paper labels that would fall apart in high moisture levels.

I believe some late-released VP are still marked as such: I've bought Taylor and Fonseca from both the 80ies and 90ies where the label was applied over the chalk.

Looking at the few bottles of '00 VP I've got at home, only the Churchill has got a chalk marking, but both the Dow and Smith Woodhouse have got a small paint marker...perhaps, in 50 plus years, when even these labels have molded, it will be helpful....

Oh, and the nick n the "back"of the bottle is indeed always in the back...it is there for constisancy (sp) in the bottling / labeling line.

Thanks. It's too bad, I really liked the seeing the white paint on the bottle. Just something that harkens back to the old world.

BTW, as I saw in Gaia ... there are still properties that do use the white paint.