Concisely:
Traditional wine labels put focus on where the wine is from, emphasizing terroir, tradition, and the winemakers' experience.
Wine Label Legend
- Country
- Region
- Estate (winery)
- Classification (county-specific)
- Special designation (county-specific)
- Where the wine was bottled
- Vintage
- Alcohol content
- Quantity
Concisely’s wine label decoder
- Country, Region, Estate (winery)
- Generally, the more specific, the higher the quality. Think, “terroir”.
- Examples of regions: Mosel (Germany), Rioja (Spain), Piedmont (Italy), Burgundy (France)
- Example of low to high specificity: France → Bordeaux → the Médoc → Château Margaux
- Classification (county-specific) and Special designation;(county-specific)
- Official Classifications are applied at a higher level, and geared toward enforcing quality standards. Additionally, some countries have further designations based on quality or style within those classifications.
- Examples of Classifications: Appellation d'origine Contrôlée (France), Denominazione d’Origine Protetta (Italy), Denominación de Origen (Spain)
- Examples of Special designation: Auslese (Germany) Grand Cru (France), Riserva (Italy)
- Vintage
- With traditional winemaking methods dictated by some classifications, the quality of the wine is very dependent on the quality of the wine grapes, and that is strongly impacted by the weather. Hence, vintage is an important indicator of quality, more so than for non-traditional winemakers, who have considerable leeway in manipulating the fermentation and maturing processes.
- Alcohol content
- Alcohol content is an indicator of wine body
Also see: The Modern Wine Label
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