Video: Understanding Wine Labels

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How to read a wine label; learn more about wine in this free instructional video.

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Video Transcript

And a very step in understanding the wine is wine label. A lot of people don’t really know what everything in the label means and that is understandable because it can be confusing. This is a wine from California. Essentially you are going to have the wine makers name or the wineries name pretty prominently displayed on the label. You are also going to have the Vintage and that is the year the grapes were harvested so the year they were picked versus the year they were bottled. You are also going to have the Appalachian or the AVA as it is called in California and that is just the wine growing area where the grapes come from. In this case, it is the North Coast. Other times you are going to have even more information as with this label where it tells you the breakdown of the two specific vineyards the grapes come from; the County Vineyard and the Fox Hill Vineyard and it gives you the percentage, 33 and 67 percent. You are also going to have the alcohol content. With this one it is 13.2 percent by volume. As far the AVA, 85 percent of the grapes have to come from that region. I think it is the same for the Vintage, 85 percent of the grapes should come from that year as well but most times the vintage is 100 percent. Another issue about the alcohol volume you probably have noticed they are getting higher and higher that is due in part to warmer weather that the grapes get riper which means more sugar which is converted to more alcohol. So 13.2 percent is actually rather low especially if you are looking at Red Wine and start getting into the 14 and 15 percent and Zinfandel’s can get into the 16 to 17 and I’ve even seen some at 18 percent, so that is pretty high. That is how to read a California label. Lot of easier than the French they will often label by the region so Burgandy or Bourdeaux are actually regions in France. A red Burgundy is Pinot Noir, a white burgundy is Chardonnay, and Boudreaux are usually blends. Italians go all over the place. They name by grapes, by region and they make up fun names that are just pulled out of the air. Usually other countries like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand they do name they wines by the great varietals so those are a little bit easier to understand.