What type of port is this?

[PopulusTremula]

Browsing the lots at a current wine auction in Sweden i came across a bottle of Barros 1947, listed as a VP. The bottle appears to have a T-stopper instead of a driven cork, which has me slightly perplexed. Is this common for Barros and would it have been used for a vintage as old as 1947? I believe this was before the concept of LBV was introduced, and the text on the bottle and capsule are not consistent with their colheitas.

Can anyone here shed some light on what type of port this is likely to be?

URL: http://magasin5.auktionsverket.se/1410/ ... tage-port/

1. Click the image for a high res version.

2. Link to the auction listings: http://magasin5.auktionsverket.com/auktion/Drycker/

[RAYC]

Doesn't look to me like an old style selo so a colheita bottled in the 80s?

[flash_uk]

A similar looking bottle is here:
http://www.belgiumwinewatchers.com/en/w ... TAWNY-PORT

suggesting it could be a basic tawny, which would make sense given the stopper.

[PopulusTremula]

Prior to posting i googled and found images of 47 colheitas. These appear to have the word colheita included on the bottle as well. Some but not all have white capsules.

[PhilW]

Bottled post-1975 since new Selo.
Even if re-corked, if VP, should not be a T-stopper.
Chances of re-corked LBV, very slim.
Barros normally put "colheita" or "matured in wood" for colheita/tawny, but then they also normally put "vintage port" if VP.
Agree with others that this is most likely colheita.

[RAYC]

Barros normally put "colheita" or "matured in wood" for colheita/tawny, but then they also normally put "vintage port" if VP.

Presumably not always on bottles destined for non-English speaking markets - eg:

barros.jpg (50.47 KiB) Viewed 4412 times

Perhaps their Swedish importer did not provide a translation for "matured in wood" at the time...

[PhilW]

Barros normally put "colheita" or "matured in wood" for colheita/tawny, but then they also normally put "vintage port" if VP.

Presumably not always on bottles destined for non-English speaking markets

Indeed; I did not mean that it would always be in English.

[Andy Velebil]

That would be a Colheita and not a Vintage Port. bottled sometime on or after the mid 1970's.

The T-stopper was used on a lot of Colheita's back then, as they were generally not designed to be stored after bottling for a long period of time. I've had a fair amount of old Tawny's (Colheita's) that have had T-stoppers in them.

[RAYC]

Barros normally put "colheita" or "matured in wood" for colheita/tawny, but then they also normally put "vintage port" if VP.

Presumably not always on bottles destined for non-English speaking markets

Indeed; I did not mean that it would always be in English.

So in terms of explaining its absence on this bottle, my next lines of thinking were: a) how many different languages for how many different markets would they produce bottles for and b) for other markets, might they just use a plain bottle...all idle speculation of course