Q:

An age old question (pun intended) came up again about the labeling of Tawny ports while enjoying a bottle of Grahams 20 Year Old Tawny.  While common convention dictates that the age of the tawny indicates the average age of the wines in the bottle, my understanding is that current IVDP laws regulate that as long as the wine subjectively taste like a particular age characteristic the bottle can be labeled as such.  Is my understanding correct that a majority of port houses actually adhere to the IVDP interpretation and not what common sense dictates?

Q:

I have heard that all vintage port bottles should have a smudge mark on the bottle to aid the rotation process.  I just received a magnum bottle of Dow's 1977 Vintage Port as a gift, that does not have a mark.  Should I be concerned ??

Q:

We have had a bottle of port in our house for some years and would like to know if it was worth anything My mother had it before she died.  The label is Sandemans porto white on the neck of the bottle it has a label that says  SR  324201  26  but I am unable to find the year.  We also have a Sandeman port decanter in the shape of the Sandeman figure that came with it.

Q:

I have purchased several bottles of 1977 Dow's at auction. Each has a different label (with different US importers) and one has an embossed bottle with "1977".  Are the different labels and bottles common, or should I worry about having a counterfeit or two in the mix?