Hello Wayne, I wouldn’t get too tied up with the word Library, we've used it simply to describe some of the limited release older wines. These were wines that actually belonged privately to my father & uncles, but was a little too much even for them and therefore it was "sold" back to the company, they were "library" wines in that they were old and in a private reserve.Wayne Logus wrote:Hi Mr. Symington:
I have some general questions about the definition of “Library” releases of old vintages. Does the term apply to older vintages that just happen to be held in the cellars of the producer and released primarily for marketing reasons? Does it only apply to wines bottled by the producer or can they be sourced from other agents or locations?
Is the ‘52 Grahams “Diamond Jubilee” Port released a few years ago, considered a Library release or was it a simply a decision to bottle from old casks of that year? In the scenario of red wine library releases, one sometimes sees vintages that are quite recent, particularly from America. Are there generally agreed upon requirements for a wine to be considered a “Library” Release?
Thank you in advance for helping me to better understand this term.
Wayne
The use of the word is purely semantic.
The 1952 is a Colheita or Single Harvest as was released for a very specific reason, HM Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee.