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Good day gentlemen and ladies. I have recently acquired a taste for port and I have been busy trying out the different styles and brands. The selection of mature vintage port at the swedish monopoly is extremely limited, so I have been focusing a bit on the LBV:s until I can get ahold of some older bottles from abroad. Which brings me to a couple of questions: Would you say that late bottled vintage port is in general representative of the shipper's or producer's vintage port? And are there labels that produce excellent wines of one type, but fail to deliver at the same level with the other type, according to you?

Thanks, Björn

Taylor Vintage Port is of the first rank. But Taylor LBV is weaker than that of many other shippers.

I'm not sure which LBV brands are easily available in Sweden, but would always buy Niepoort, Warre Bottle-Matured and Smith Woodhouse Unfiltered if I can find them. JDAW is right, the 'big' names can produce very disappointing, filtered LBV - he mentions Taylor but Graham is a similar point, and Dow; simply not labels I would think of when buying LBV; whereas Croft Unfiltered LBV can be marvellous. I think there isn't a straightforward link between the two styles.

Look for the words 'unfiltered' or 'bottle matured' and these will guide you to the better bottlings. Be aware that although Niepoort don't use either term on their labels, their LBVs are unfiltered, and can be excellent.

Thanks for the tips. I have a half bottle of Niepoort LBV 2009 waiting to be opened. Seems to be popular because it's sold out at the moment. There's also Smith Woodhouse 2001 to be had so I'll grab one or two bottles. I've tried another unfiltered one, Churchill 2009, which I found excellent.

About Warre's bottle matured: This weekend my cousin showed me a bottle she recieved as a gift around 15 years ago, a 1982 Warre LBV. It's been stored at room temperature, probably standing for a good portion of the time but lying down the last couple of years at least. I told her that hopefully it's okay but that she shouldn't wait long before opening it. What do you think of the chances of this bottle still being enjoyable?

I think the chances of this bottle still being enjoyable are fairly good, despite the storage conditions. Is it leaking? Has the cork dried out and allowed any visible seepage? So long as it's one of the bottle-matured LBVs (Warre make both, I think their filtered LBVs have red capsules so are easy to avoid) then it should have aged nicely and shouldn't have spoiled. Along with a few other people here I am currently drinking and enjoying Warre bottle-matured LBV from 84 and 86. They're excellent, really very close to early-maturing vintage ports. Your friend should drink hers soon though; the poor storage will have hastened its development.

I've been thinking about the original question and come to the conclusion that generally I don't see a great deal of similarity between a shipper's LBV and their vintage ports. There is a consistency of style for a particular producer's LBV, but this style is usually quite different from the style of the vintage.

Another couple of producers who make excellent LBV ports are Noval and Quevedo, both of which are unfiltered and which will mature nicely in a cellar for 20+ years.

Zmirc wrote: The selection of mature vintage port at the swedish monopoly is extremely limited, so I have been focusing a bit on the LBV:s until I can get ahold of some older bottles from abroad.

Thanks, Björn

Hello Björn, you are right that the selection of genuinely old vintage port is quite limited at the Swedish monopoly. However, there are a few with about 15 years maturity. Of the current selection I would recommend Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage 1998.

JB vintage wrote:

Zmirc wrote: The selection of mature vintage port at the swedish monopoly is extremely limited, so I have been focusing a bit on the LBV:s until I can get ahold of some older bottles from abroad.

Thanks, Björn

Hello Björn, you are right that the selection of genuinely old vintage port is quite limited at the Swedish monopoly. However, there are a few with about 15 years maturity. Of the current selection I would recommend Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage 1998.

Thanks for the tip! I have one of those in my storage along with one FG 1995 that was still left at one of the stores. Hope to try them soon.