The backstage of a full Vintage Declaration

Posted by C.daSILVA / at Friday, August 16, 2013 / /

The backstage of classical or non classical "Vintage Port declaration":
 
The IVDP - Port Wine Institute controls and approves all the types of Port Wine released to the market. Each time that our company wants to bottle a different blend of any type of Port, samples need to be submited to both IVDP´s chemical analysis and blind tastings.
If all is according to what was planned, then we receive an approbation to bottle (ex. 4000 liters of Rosé Port).
Although for Vintage Port, the IVDP administers supplementary actions, being the Vintage the "king" (the highest quality) of Port wine.

The period that goes from January till June of the second year after the harvest, is when all the Houses / Port Companies should be ready to send the samples of their Vintage Ports.
By getting all the samples it will occurs then a blind tasting and several chemical analysis at the IVDP.
If the tasting profile matches the high standards for Vintage Port and if all is approved on the laboratory, IVDP will approve the batch for bottling. But the process will continue in a near future, in this particular case, immediately before the bottling.

The information of when the bottling takes place must be given to the IVDP, so that the IVDP inspectors can be at the bottling area or warehouse to count the number of bottled bottles and ensure that the quality is the same that has been tasted a few months ago at the IVDP facilities, for that they will collect five samples / bottles that will pass through the same IVDP´s certification process.

Then there is also a interesting subject that is the classic and non classic Vintage Port declarations, how is it defined ?

Well, apart from the exceptional weather conditions that will lead to great berries and if it was declared a "Vintage Confraria" (Brotherhood Vintage), meaning that over than ten Port wine Companies have declared Vintage, also the announcement of a massive declaration by the media ( the exemple of the latest Vintage 2011, with 55 Vintages approved)...these are normally the key elements that are being used to define a classic or non classic Vintage Port declaration.

Port wine Brotherdood - it is a independent Brotherhood created in November of 1982 with its headquarters at "Palácio da Bolsa" side by side with the IVDP´s building, it is a independent organization that gathers all the Port wine Companies with a warehouse or depot at Vila Nova de Gaia.