Welcome to Maxx Guide To Wine
Sangria Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Understanding Wine Labels
from: Maxx Guide to WineWith so much variety in wine brands and types now available, deciding on a bottle of wine can be difficult, even for a wine enthusiast. Reading the wine label won't necessarily help either, since there are various foreign terms and small print you can hardly read.
Reading a wine label might make you feel you need a secret decoder, but the information on the label actually tells you about the wine and the winery and conditions of production. When you know what to look for on a wine label, understanding it is easy.
Brand Name: This is the brand name of the company who produced the wine, which is usually the name of the winery or bottler if the winery produces a number of different brands.
Vintage: Most wines labels have the vintage somewhere on the bottle, but this isn't mandatory so it won't appear on all bottles. The vintage of a wine is the year the grapes used for producing the wine were harvested. Most wine producing countries have laws requiring at least 85% of the grapes to be harvested in the specified year of vintage. In the U.S.this can be as high as 95%.
Appellation of Origin: This is the geographical area where the grapes were grown, such as "California" or a more specific vineyard. Most countries have strict laws regarding an appellation classification, which is why, like vintage, 85% of the grapes used must be from a specified region.
Wine Type: This specifies the grapes used to make the wine, which can be as broad as "Red Table Wine" or as specific as Merlot or Chardonnay. Most wine producing countries allow the use of some non-varietal grapes in the blend. In Europe and Australia, at least 85% of the wine's content must be from the named varietals, while in some parts of the United States it's much lower at about 75%.
Producer and Bottler: What this part of the bottle signifies varies greatly depending on where the bottle of wine originated. If grapes are harvested and bottled at the winery, it's considered "estate bottled" and the label will state this using Mise en bouteille(s) au Chateau (French), Gutsabfüllung/Erzeugerabfüllung (German) or simply Estate Bottled.
According to Napa Valley Vintners online (napavintners.com) it's even more specific for American bottled wines and the terminology even more specifically determines how the wine was bottled: 'Produced and bottled by' certifies the bottler fermented 75% or more of the wine. Used in combination with other information on the label, such as a vineyard, this term provides the consumer with significant information about the origin of the wine and who's responsible for its production.
'Cellared and bottled by' tells you the bottler has aged the wine or subjected it to cellar treatment before bottling. 'Made and bottled by' is telling you the bottler fermented at least 75% of the wine (10% before July 28, 1994). 'Bottled by' indicates the winery bottled the wine, which may have been grown, crushed, fermented, finished and aged by someone else.
Other Required Information: Depends on the country the wine is produced. Wines sold in the United States are required to have (at least on the back label) alcohol content, content size as well as consumer warnings from the Surgeon General and a sulphite warning. German wines are required to have an Amptliche Prüfungs Nummer, which is a number received while testing. The famous wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Alsace in France have the term "Cru" somewhere on the label which indicates the wine is from a town or producer of high quality.
The information on a wine label informs you about where the wine came from and how it was produced. Now, you might not completely understand every term on a wine bottle, however, understanding the basics is all that's necessary. Rules vary from country to country as to what's required on a wine bottle or specific terms used. In other words, what's required in France might not be required in Chile, so expect differences in terminology based on where the wine was produced.
Check out moderately priced gourmet gift baskets from Cheese and Wine Unlimited!
Wine Gift Baskets
Cellars Wine Club
Sangria News