Posts
Say you're in the wine store and you want to buy something new. You have nothing to go by outside of the label. Will the label tell you anything you should know? Welcome to the second part of a two-part series exploring the news you can use on a label of wine. Here are a few helpful definitions:
Vintage Date: This is the year in which all or most of the grapes in the wine were harvested. Some vintages are better than others within a given region, and the best age at which to drink a wine can vary by grape, region, and production method. Not all wines are vintage dated.
Old vines or vieilles vignes. Theoretically, older vines produce fewer, but more flavorful, grapes, but the problem is that no one has defined what an "old vine" is, so anyone can put this on the label.
Brand Name: The winery that produces and sells the wine, called a chateau in France. Since total unknowns may offer undiscovered treasures and even the most revered wineries can turn out flops, brand name alone is not necessarily enough to judge a wine.
Quality Level: European Union labels usually indicate the wine’s status within the country’s quality hierarchy. On a French label, the term “reserve” generally tells you that the bottle in your hand has been aged a bit longer, while on an American label the word's meaning depends upon the winery's whim. High-quality producers take it seriously and put their best grapes into reserve bottlings.
Varietal Designation: The dominant grape or grapes in the wine, and in the U.S., one of the first places to look for the sort of flavors to expect. Varietal designations are rare on French labels.
Appellation of Origin: The more specific the better; this is the name of the place where the grapes in the wine were grown, which can be a country, state, county, region, or viticultural area.
Alcohol Content: Just like it sounds. Most wines are 7-14 percent alcohol by volume.
Estate Bottled: Indicates that the wine was continuously under the control of one winery in one location. One hundred percent of the grapes were grown, crushed, fermented, finished, aged, and bottled on the property. These “artisan” wines likely to emphasize the unique properties of the grapes, the vintage, and the winemaker’s vision are the common practice in most regions of France, while stateside, estate bottling is seen mostly in boutique wineries.
Trade Name: The name of the bottler or importer. The more discerning importers’ names are considered an important indication of quality - and when buying wines from tiny French estates might be just about all you have to go on. Wines made outside of but sold within the U.S. must list the importer on the label.
Once you speak a label’s language, it’s impressive how much you can learn about a bottle of wine just by looking at it.
