For The Love Of Port

There are so many styles of Port label: pure black and white, etched, modern colors (Portal), painted stencil, handwritten, traditional etc. Different shippers brands at times can use a combination of different labels. What is your favorite style and who is the producer that uses, (or used to use it)?

P.S. Thanks Alex!

I love the painted stenciled ones the best. They're never perfect, which adds to the charm, no labels to stain. Souza in particular I just love. I also really like the Niepoort style, especially the yellow foil top and the stylized NIEPOORT.

Same here, I love the stencil labels, does not have to be hand painted. Kopke, Barros, Niepoort, Krohn

I love stencil as well...but I hate when the stencil is worn out and blurs most of the writing making it hard to read. Older bottled Niepoort's were famous for that blurred paint (the flip side is I know it's faked if it's perfect, LOL).

One of my favorites still in use is the Noval VP label. Simple, classic, easy to read and stands out on the shelf.

My all time favorite label was only produced once and is quite hard to find nowadays. A bottle of mine with the label now rests on display at the Graham's Lodge for all to see. 1942 Graham's VP "Bottled in Oporto 1945 Victory Year" . The label is a white background with black letters and "Victory Year" is in bright red letters. Such the cool label with such an important historical event noted on it.

Good choice Andy.

My favourite label for design is the Cockburn Quinta dos Canais 2000: The same label appeared on at least two other Canais bottlings (1991 and 1992), though in those cases in black writing on white background, and I prefer the black background of the 2000. I like the fact that the label is clear, pleasing to the eye (to mine at least) and informative (yes it's only a little info, but perhaps enough to pique people's interest to find out more).

Honorable mention also to the Da Silva bottling of Noval '58 with the Portuguese coat of arms:

I like Delaforce's VP labels as they look very official for Portugal appointment.

May favourite labels are the Fonseca labels from the 1960s - block white lettering on a black background. Big, clear, easy to read and very distinctive.

The old Fonseca Panascal labels are very pleasant, although photos don't do justice to the real thing:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fonse ... dOnl5IXgBM:

The modern ones don't rock my boat however..

Some of the very old Portuguese label designs are also splendidly elegant, although I don't have a photo to hand.

I really love the stencil used by Kopke. I feel the minimalist style is just telling you to simply enjoy the port.

The stenciled "labels" (are they even labels?) do look nice. I've been putting old bottles up on the wall, and even some of the younger ones with stenciling. They just have character.