ThePortForum.com

Two threads on the same subject have been merged by jdaw1, somewhat interleaving the posts. But the substance of the conversation should be clear enough.

D
Hello!
Do anyone know if Gilbert declared a vintage 1986. We have a photo with 2 labels 1985 and or one label with 1985 and one label change to 1986 or 1986 change to 1985

Thank you for your help. I hope the photo is attached! I have tried!

Sten
http://www.vintageport.se

In addition to Sten's posting about Gilbert 1985 I have attached the photo. To the right you have the ordinary Gilbert's 1985. To the left you have what I interpret as a bottle with a label printed Vintage 1985 but the number changed manually to 1986, perhaps changed because of a printing error, or perhaps not correct at all. Does anyone know if Gilbert's Vintage Port 1986 exist?

While I have no idea in this case, sometimes prior to receiving the correct years labels, producers will bottle samples and use an old label that they manually change the vintage on. I've seen it tons of times over the years. Again, I have no idea if that is the case here just presenting a possibility.

Merge with the other thread??

Another possibility here would be printer error. The amended labels also have "Bottled 1988", which would suggest it was a 1986 vintage, however the vintage year may have incorrectly been printed 1985 as shown, and then manually amended to 1986. Although I think technically a VP can be aged in barrel for up to two and a half years, so I suppose it would be possible to harvest in 1985 and bottle in 1988.

Is there a bottling date on the white label 1985?

Third year bottling does happen - more so in the past than in the 80's, but possible.

I don't have either of these in my cellar, so can't pull a bottle to compare, nor do I have a list of Gilbert declarations to refer to. However, I would find it very surprising if they had gone ahead with a bottling after a printer had screwed up - the normal response would be to tell the printer to re-print. The correction also looks very amateurish. As Andy notes, sample bottles often have an old label manually changed, but this is usually done with some elegance..

1985 is later than I've ever seen a "3rd year" bottling of VP, but it's possible.

There are at least 4 bottlings of 1967 Taylor's Vargellas. I have personally tasted:

Oporto bottled 1969
English bottled 1969
Oporto bottled 1970
English bottled 1970

I don't recall which English bottler in either case, but it's probably in my notes. With multiple English bottlers (as was often the case), the number of different bottlings grows quickly.

I don't recall which English bottler in either case

Although this is quite a common SQVP, the English bottled ones I've seen have all had similar labels and capsules with no bottler's name evident, so I'd hazard a guess that the bottling was arranged by the importers at that time, Deinhard.