For The Love Of Port

While Andy and others rummage for the real answers to A & B of the homework assignment, here is a really fun dig:

In what year did the IVP attach the first ever Seal of Guarantee on a bottle of Port wine?

Hint, the IVP was formed in 1933, the same year coincidentally ... that Prohibition ended in the USA.

Again according to http://www.dourowine.com

1941- approval and regulation of the port Seal of Guarantee. 1941- establishment of the points method by Álvaro Baltazar Moreira da Fonseca, which served as the basis for the distribution of the Benefício (quota licences) in the Douro Demarcated Region.

They do not say though if the seal was attached that perticular year.

I did not know that website before tonight... Google is your best friend :)

So, I too have not been able to locate an exact date that the seal was first used. Anyone out there know....come on, don't be shy, help us out a little,

I too could only find the same information as Fred. So I am going to guess 1941 -- since that is the year that the regulation of the gaurantee went into effect.

You are relying to heavily on Google to do your work.

It's fast and easy :-D

1934

Put us out f our misery, Roy :) - if indeed you have the official answer: my sources give several dates... :?

I thought I had the answer to this question, when I posted it. Upon reading the various answers, I went back to my library to make sure that I had it right. Most sources list 1941. But I also saw 1934 in one of them.

Then I had the idea that since any type of action by the Port Wine Institute (IVP in those days) had to be a governmental rule, published by "DL" decree law ... that a source at the IVDP could do the research.

I'd rather be accurate, so I sent an email on Monday and should hear back this week. Sorry for keeping you folks on hold. Like the belief that the Douro's demarcation was the first in the world, (along with just about every author/journalist I know or have read) ... new information comes along to dispel one's own beliefs. The same applies when reading more than one date for the first employ of the Seal of Guarantee.

Roy, is it possible that some had the idea to put a seal since 1934 but it was not applied as a law until 1941. The best exemple to reflect this is the LBV. Many where bottling one prior to the regulation by the IDVP.

Beside that it would be nice to have a newsletter about the seal. What happened with it between 1941 and 1975. Because I see many pre-1975 bottle with no seal on it. Was the seal only used on bottling in Portugal?

The answer will be in the PORT FORUM: IVDP Seal of Guarantee