Beginner’s Guide To Wine Labels
Reading wine labels is the focus of this part of our wine 101 guide…
Reading a wine label is a useful skill to have as it lets you go into a wine store and make informed choices on new purchases. By knowing what to look for and what to ignore you’ll be able to sort through the multitude of choices and the find ones that best match your personal choices. So, lets look at each aspect of a wine label individually.
The first thing to look for is the vintage, or the year the wine was produced; most wines are meant to be drunk immediately, so choose a bottle from a recent year. This particularly applies if youre looking for a fresh, lively, fruity wine at a reasonable price. Whilst some vintages are famous for certain wines, they tend to be quite expensive and, if you do want to buy such a wine, research on the internet or in magazines will be required.
Secondly, the geography; there are lots of famous regions and vineyards around the world (too many to list here) so this can be a bit of a lottery and unless you do prior research. However, as a general rule, the more specific a wine label is about its source (i.e. by stating a particular vineyard or town rather than a region or a country), the better it’s likely to be. This is because many bad wineries will try to benefit from the name of the large region where they are located, even if their vineyards are in undesirable parts of the area.
Thirdly, the alcohol content; it’s recommended that you look for one at around 14% or less.You may think that the higher the alcohol content, the more value you’ll get from it, but wines with higher levels of alcohol than that tend to be unbalanced and, if drinking for pleasure rather than to get drunk, wont be very enjoyable.
Lastly, the fine details; including information such as the dates the grapes were harvested and the wine was bottled, whether the grapes were grown and fermented at the same place (called estate-bottling), and the phone number of the winery are all positive signs. Details such as these add to a wines authenticity and indicate that the wine producer cares about and has faith in their product.
