Styles of port: LBV

Late Bottled Vintage port is a wine from a single year, bottled between the fourth and sixth years after the harvest. Three different styles of LBV wines have evolved, however. First there are LBVs bottled without any filtration or treatment so that, like a vintage port, they need to be decanted before serving. These wines, once designated with the word ‘traditional’ tend to be made in good but undeclared years and are ready to drink earlier than vintage port, four to six years after bottling. Since the revision of the legislation in 2002, unfiltered LBV may also be sold as Envelhecido em Garrafa or ‘bottle matured’, provided the wine in question has been aged in bottle for a minimum of three years prior to release on the market. Many of the wines in this second style share much of the depth of a true vintage port.