Reading Wine Labels

Wine labels are made to be attractive, but they also contain much more than just a pretty picture. They also provide a lot of information about what is contained in the bottle. This information is controlled by the various government agencies in every country that control the wines that are imported and then distributed there. The label must meet the specifications of the country that it is being sold in, not necessarily where it was created. Most wineries have specially labels made for each country where it will be sold, or they add strip labels to the bottles to make them meet the requirements for that specific country. The information that shows up on any given wine label falls under two basic categories: required information and permitted information.

Required Wine Label Information

In the United States , there are five basic requirements that must be met for a wine to be able to be sold. There must be brand identification. The name of the brand is often the name of the wineries where the beverage was made. The class, type, or designation is the next requirement. This way it is easy to discern if the bottle contains red table wine, light wine, sparkling wine, Chablis, etc. The location where the wine is bottled is next on the requirement list. Sometimes you will see "produced and bottled by" on the label because the winery itself does bottle the vintage. Others times, a winery will create the wine, but then another company bottles it. Alcohol content is the fourth requirement on a wine label. In general, table wines have an alcohol between 7% and 14% by volume. Whatever percentage is listed, there is a tolerance of 1% on wines that are 14% or below and 1.5% on wines over 14%. The net volume of contents in the bottle is the final requirement. There are exceptions to this final requirement. The bottle itself may contain this information instead of it showing up on the label as long as the label does not obscure this information in anyway. If a wine is bottled after July 9, 1987 it has one additional requirement. It must list how many sulfites can be found in the wine. This is to help those people that are sensitive to sulfur compounds.

Permitted Wine Label Information

The date for the particular vintage in a wine bottle may be on the label, but it does not have to be. The date provided refers to the year it was both harvested and fermented. A government health warning is also most likely on your wine label. After November 18, 1989, this warning statement was required to be placed on wine in the United States , but in other countries it is most likely not there at all. It is also entirely possible that dietary information could be on a wine label. It is not required at all, but as of the spring of 2004, it was permitted to be placed on a wine label. It is also possible that the type of wine that was used to make the wine will be listed on a wine bottle's label.