ThePortForum.com

Spotted this at forthcoming Christie's sale.

Clearly Dow, but guessing it's some sort of private bottling?

Whose birthday, I wonder...

I spotted that one. Clearly a variation on this particular version of the Dow 1963 label:


It's a nicely created label, very similar to the original in style, and the replacement of the tag line "OWNERS OF THE FINEST VINEYARDS IN PORTUGAL" was very nicely done, looking very similar. There are some differences in the detail - the most obvious perhaps being the font use for the replacement of DOW'S -> WAGNERS (a similar but not identical font) and the original PORT has been replaced by PORT in the same font as the WAGNERS. The spacing between words of the "Silva + Cozens Ltd." script is subtly different also.

Were it not for the font and logo differences, I would have guessed this to be a variation created by the producer on request; the bottle, label and selo condition seems consistent with age, and the presence of the selo indicating Oporto bottling. However with the font and logo differences, I'm more tempted to believe this was originally bottled in Oporto, and the label replaced later - by someone who did a very good job.

The Selo is the first release of the new style in the early 1970’s, which does indicate a later ex-cellars release. Looks like someone either bought a bunch and got private labels made, or removed the originals and applied their own. Regardless, looks genuine to me. A darn good VP.