Oddity

[PhilW]

Just thought I'd share this oddity, seen on ebay, here... Anyone actually tried any of this stuff?

Almost didnt post this in the 'Port Conversations' forum, since despite the label a bit of searching implies it might be australian-made, not from oporto... interesting though (and wow, what an awful picture on the label!).

Phil.

[JacobH]

I’ve tried quite a few commemorative bottles from different periods. The problem seems to be that most of them are made as basic rubies or ruby reserves which means they don’t age very well, even though people do seem to keep them as souvenirs. The most interesting ones are probably the Factory House bottlings which are where all the English shippers contribute a few bottles of their Vintage Port which get blended together and bottled. However, these are quite rare!

One problem with Port is that commemorative bottles can’t really be made as Vintage Ports, since there’s a two-year delay between the harvest and declaration meaning the year on the bottle is wrong, but they could be made as Crusted Ports which are sold with their year of bottling on the label rather than rubies.

I don’t really know anything about Australian ‟ports”. Some non-Portuguese Port is quite good but I think a lot of the Australian stuff is made from non-traditional varieties, producing quite a different wine. It looks like Liebich make most of their fortified wines from Muscat, although this bottle might be a Grenache since the former are usually sold as Muscats. The very few fortified Grenaches I have tried have all been perfectly acceptable--though they are clearly not Ports!--and I think they age quite well too.

[Alex Bridgeman]

It's quite rare that I drink any Aussie port. I think that the last time I did was when Alex K brought some back from his trip down under. I'm certain the I've not tried this one. I have tried a few commemorative bottles in my time. At Christmas we had a bottle of the Vargellas commemorative bottling for Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. This described itself as a Vintage Character port but had all the weight and depth of a Crusted.

1977 vintage ports bottled as "Jubilee" port is pretty good stuff, but the best commemorative bottling that I have come across are the 1934 vintage bottled and often stencilled as "Coronation Port". Well worth trying

[JacobH]

At Christmas we had a bottle of the Vargellas commemorative bottling for Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. This described itself as a Vintage Character port but ahd all the weight and depth of a Crusted.

I’d forgotten about that: it was rather nice, and oddly showed quite well compared to straight Vargellas from that period.

[griff]

Hi Phil,

Did you post on the Aussie fora? i must have missed it. Liebich is specialist fortified producer from the Barossa. It would be a conventional vintage port style. Most likely Shiraz and/or Grenache. They are still in business so you could email them. Nice people.

cheers

Carl