For wine lovers who may be just
beginning to discover wine and maybe even for those of you who are
casual wine drinkers but find the label on a bottle of American wine
confusing or intimidating here is a short article on just what you
are seeing on a wine label. Lets go ahead and look at the label I have included. Lets start off with the first item on
the label we are going to look at which is....
1 - The 2001 in this case is the year
that the grapes for the wine were picked.
2 - This would be the name of the
Winery at or the brand name. It is not always where the grapes
were grown.
3 - For line number 3 this is where
the grapes came. If the “American Viticultu
is on the label that means that
at least 85% of the grapes for that wine HAD to come from that
region. If there is a county
stated there than at least 75% of the grapes for that wine had to
come
from that county. If there is
simply a state located in this spot then 100% of the grapes had to
come from California.
4 - At times you will see the actual
name of a specific Vineyard on the label. That simply indicates
that 95% of the grapes for the
wine came from that actual Vineyard.
5 - If you see “produced and
bottled by” on the label than you know that the person who produced
the wine is also the same
person who bottled the wine. If you see “Estate Bottled” that
means that
the wine is made from grapes
that come from the producers Vineyard.
6 - Here is where you will see the
wine making information such as whether the wine was “barrel
fermented”, “sur lie” or
“oak aged” tell you more about the style or flavor of that
particular wine.
7 - The actual location of the
bottler is listed here.
8 - Here is where the volume of
Alcohol is located.
9 - This line has the information on
the volume of the contents. A standard wine bottle has a volume
of 750 ml which is equal to
five glasses of wine.
I hope this article assists you in
your search for that perfect bottle of wine.
The Desert Wine Guy
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