For The Love Of Port

I'm trying to figure out if this is just a regular tawny or something a little more? I'm also wondering how old it is? From the 80's maybe?

I'm not sure what the regulations were when that was bottled, but in today's terms "Very Old Tawny" is restricted to 40 years old or older. "Old Tawny" is 20 years old or older, and the new 80+ year old category is now allowed to call itself "Very Very Old Tawny".

Based on the bottle shape I would guess late 70's or 80's.

That is based on that was also the period where Ferreira used the same bottle shape. At least for their VPs. As you may know Ferreira and Offley are both owned by Sogrape. So it makes sense in my mind.

The 1975, 1982, 1985 and 1987 Ferreira VPs came in bottles just like the one you posted if memory serves me right. Added some pictures as proof.

The 1982 in my picture has the same wax on the capsule as well.

The squat Ferreira bottle goes back older than the 70's.

Yeah, other than echoing that I’ve also had some 77 and 85 Ferreira (IIRC) in the same shape bottle, I don’t have much to add. Cool looking find though, I’m glad you shared the pic.


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Thanks everyone. That was helpful. I hadn't found anything online so I turned to the forum. It would be great if it's a 40 year old tawny, but regardless, the bottle is in cool looking and overall in really good shape. Whenever I open it, I'll post a note.

It would have been bottled around mid to late 70’s to early 90’s.

As for exactly how old, no idea.

Andy Velebil wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 2:27 pm It would have been bottled around mid to late 70’s to early 90’s.

As for exactly how old, no idea.

Thanks Andy. I would lean to it being 70's or 80's only because it has a wax seal. You see less and less of that in the 90's and later. The bottle itself lends no clue however, so I could be wrong.

Found a picture of a 1977 Ferreira VP too and added it just for the documentation. Same bottle type and also wax neck.

Thanks Thomas. That's a great picture and an incredible line-up..

It was a really nice night Mike, great wines all-round. The tasting theme was the that the 2 chairmen of our port club got to chose some favourites for the club to taste. So a bit of a mix of the different categories. I chose the 2017 Graham's, 1996 Vesuvio and the 1966 Wiese & Krohn. (The 1991 Rosa was brought by a guest). For the night the stand outs for me were the 66's W&K and the 17' Graham's. Sometimes I am surprised by how much I can dig a really young and unctuous vintage port. It's shouldn't be able to compete with older VPs like the 85' Fonseca.