There is a dizzying amount of information crammed onto the two small labels on every bottle of wine. What does it all mean? How can it help you to choose a wine that suits your palate and the meal you are planning?
Wine makers are trying to express their ideas and opinions about their wine and wine making on these small spaces. The information on the label is nowhere near as important as how the wine tastes to you, nevertheless, reading the label carefully can provide you with some useful information about the wine inside.
Most wine bottles have two labels. The front label is eye catching with creative type and often a distinctive image, anything from a drawing of the chateau where the wine was produced to the handprint of the wine maker's baby, or even a painting by a world renowned artist.
American law requires that the front label contain the type of wine (this means table wine, sparkling wine, or dessert wine), the alcohol content, which is generally between 11 and 13 percent , and the name and address of the bottler, which may or may not be the same as the wine's producer, and the country of origin.
Law also dictates other information that must appear, but not necessarily on the front label:
- How much wine is in the bottle - which is expressed in milliliter; a standard wine bottle is 750 ml, which translates as 25.6 ounces.
- Contains sulfites - Sulfites are a natural preservative used for wine. Very few wines have no preservatives and some that do not contain sulfites may use a different, more harsh preservative.
- Brand name - anything from someone and son proprietor, to a major company with a recognizable name.
- Government warning - Every bottle must include a warning about the dangers of drinking alcohol.
Once they have included all the required information, wineries can tell you a lot of other details about what is inside the bottle, or they can spin a seductive story about the wine itself. The type of detail found on the back label varies widely, from simply the importer's name and address, to the story behind the vineyard, to information on what foods they recommend paring their wine with.
U. S. wines usually state the grape varietals on the front label. To be labeled Zinfandel or Pinot Noir a wine must contain a minimum of 75 percent of that particular grape. French, Italian, and Spanish wines all include information on what area the wine was produced in, rather than, or more frequently than the type of grape used.
Estate bottled means the company that grew the grapes also bottled the wine.
Reserve is used to indicate a more special bottle . It may mean the winery considered this wine came from the best fruit or was made with more expensive wine making processes. It also suggests you will pay more for this wine than its no reserve relation.
Vintage date is the ear the grapes were harvested. This is the vintage year even if the wine was not bottled until a year or more later. If a wine is a blend of multiple vintages, then no date will be specified.
