How To Read A Wine Label For Beginners

Wine, like opera, has a terrible reputation for being a snobby subject that requires specialized knowledge in order to talk about it and not look like an idiot. Do not be intimidated. Wine is pretty simple once you understand a few basic things about it. Wine bottle labels, too, are easy to understand once you get a few basics down. Here are the essential things to know in order to read a wine label.

Do not be impressed by phrases like "special reserve". There are no regulations on reserves or on using the term on bottles, so a winery could put "reserve stock" on every bottle it produces. Reserve actually means whether or not a bottle was set aside to age longer than usual. While "reserve" does not mean much, do keep an eye out for the term "grand vin" on a French label. This means it is considered the winery's best wine.

The "varietal" is the kind of grapes used to make the wine. Common white wine varietals include Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Common red wine varietals are Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Sangiovese. If you are reading a French label, also look for the term "grand cru" which means the region's finest winery. "Premier cru" means a top winery, but not the best.

Look for the vintage, or the year the wine was made. This will be four digits, like 1974 or 2001. If the label is French, look for the word "Millésime". If it is Italian look for "Annata" or "Vendemmia". For Spanish wines the word for vintage is "Cosecha".

Look for the geographic origin of the wine, or, put more simply, where it was made. For American wines, this is known as the American Viticultural Area, or the AVA. This can be a bit tricky because some origin names are regulated and some are not. Most wines are regulated, which means they actually have to come from Sonoma Valley to have that county name on their label. Unregulated wines like California Chablis do not necessarily come from the Chablis region of California. For French wine labels, look for the term "Vin de Pays", which shows the region the grapes where grown in. On Italian labels, the term to watch for is "Classico", which means the wine comes from the center of a DOC or Denominazione della Origine Contrallata region.

"Estate bottled" is another term to value. It means the wine was bottled where it was grown, and this typically makes for a higher quality wine. In Italian, the term is "Imbottigliato all'origine". In French, its "Mise en bouteille(s) au Chateau". In German, it is "Gutsabfüllung".

Other good information on wine labels includes the alcohol content (which may be the most important piece of information for high schoolers). The other is the acid content and/or pH value, which could be helpful if you are trying to pick a wine to have with a specific dinner.
The higher the number of the pH, the less acidic the wine is. White wines have higher acid levels than reds. Most table wines have a pH between 3.3 and 3.7 and a total acidity between 0.6 to 0.7%. You may have to get out your calculator to get the total acidity of a bottle, as acidity is frequently measured in milliliters, and what you want is milliliters divided by the total liquid volume of wine in the bottle.

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