Wine Labels: Not Just a Pretty Face

Written by Erika Sato

Let’s face it. A good wine label sells wine. An attention grabbing or stylish label is a plus for any bottle of wine.

But a wine label is not just a pretty face. When you’re searching the shelves for your next bottle, don’t just look at the tasting notes, but also look at the label. It can tell you a lot about the characteristics and the probable quality of the wine. Even without having tried it, you can make an educated guess about whether you will like the wine or not.

Wine laws govern what can be placed on the label and were put in place to ensure accuracy. What does this mean for us as consumers? Partly, this means that we can then have a better understanding of what we potentially are buying and consuming. Even though wine laws differ from region to region, and can change from time to time, there are some basic take-aways you can get without having to learn the specifics of each country or region (unless you want to!)

As in real estate, it’s Location, Location, Location. It’s about the region, it’s about the grape, it’s about the vineyards, it’s about the producer.

Location. At the very highest level, what country is it from? What region? What grape? The more you know about the region the wine comes from will give you hints about:

Style: Warmer regions will generally produce a riper, jammier style. A wine from France will have a different style than a wine from California. Grapes grown at higher altitudes will produce different wines that those grown at lower altitudes.  Etc. You get the idea.

If you have had wines from a particular region before and liked them, then there is a good chance that you will also like other wines from the same region, because they will have a similar style.

Grape quality: If the grape is known to grow well in the region, you have a better chance of getting a quality wine. That is, the vineyard manager knows which grapes grow well in which region – will ripen well, not have a lot of disease pressure etc. – which in turn will better ensure high quality grapes. In addition, the winemakers understand how to treat the grapes in the wine making process and do not need to go through extreme measures to produce the wine (e.g. overoaking, addition of sugar).

Even looking at it in the simplest sense – have you had a wine from that grape from that region before? If you enjoyed it, look for more. If you like the grape and want to explore how different regions produce different style wines from it, you have the means to start doing that.

Location. The more specificity you have around where in the region the grapes are sourced from will give you hints about:

Complexity/Character: The more specific the location, the more it picks up the character of that location. A wine made from grapes sourced from multiple areas and blended will lose the character of the individual vineyards and become more generic. On the opposite end, a wine made with grapes sourced from a single vineyard will retain the character of that vineyard site.

Potential Quality: Wines sourced from highly regarded vineyard sites will tend to produce higher quality wines.

Location. Who is the producer? Is it a big corporation, is it a small, independent winery? Is it a producer who has a reputation for making good wine?

Producer size: A big corporation sourcing grapes from a wide area will tend to produce more mass market type wines.

Producer/Winemaker: It is said that anybody can make a good wine in a good year. If it’s a tough vintage, the good producers will always still find a way to make the best wine possible. When in doubt, always go with a producer with a track record for producing good wine.

Also, a given winemaker and winery will often have their own style. Very often, you will find that the wines produced by a given winemaker will have a common style which reflects their philosophy.

Let’s take a look at some examples of labels. Unfortunately, this is one situation where the more you know about wine, the more insight you will actually get from a label. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an easy place to start.

With this label, there is a lot to learn.

Vineyard/Producer: Dancing Crow Vineyards

Vintage: 2018

Grape: no listing, implying a blend

Location: Lake County (in California, in the North Coast wine region)

Location: Kelsey Bench (within Lake County)

Location: Old Stake 1901 Vineyard (within the Kelsey Bench)

This particular wine comes from grapes sourced from a very particular location. You can start with the broader area of California. Then you have the American Viticultural Area (AVA) of Lake County, then the sub-AVA (Kelsey Bench) and the specific vineyard within the sub-region (Old Stake 1901). The more you can drill down to more and more specific locations, the more the wine will tend to exhibit the complexity and individual character of an area.

For instance, California in general produces riper, more fruit-forward styles of wine.  However, northern California (i.e. North Coast) will be a little less ripe and opulent as those from more southern areas.  However, even within the North Coast, there is differences in climate (on the coast vs. slightly inland), altitude (valley vs. mountainside) etc.  Lake County is inland, but is surrounded by mountains.  Kelsey Bench has vineyards planted at reasonably high altitude.  All these things affect the final wine.

By contrast, let’s look at a relatively simple label. There is not a lot of information here:

Producer: Bogle Vineyards

Vintage: 2018

Grape: Merlot

Location: California

All the information you can get from this label is that Bogle has sourced Merlot grapes from anywhere in California to make this wine. This is not necessarily bad, but just note that because it is a blend of Merlot from any number of locations, this wine is unlikely to have any unique characteristics due to where the grape is grown, etc.

Because the examples above are both from California, let’s just take another quick look at these labels within the context of wine laws in California.

For instance, in California, if there is a vintage declared on the label, 95% of the wine must be from that year. If there is a grape noted, 75% of the grapes must be that varietal. If there is a state notation, 100% of the grapes must come from that state. If there is a County notation, 75% of the grapes must come from that area. If there is an AVA notation, 85% must come from that AVA. If there is a vineyard notation, the grapes must come from that vineyard only.

Let’s look back at the Dancing Crow label in the context of this information. The grapes are sourced from a very particular location, a single vineyard, in fact. The producer considers the grapes from that vineyard to be high enough quality to make a wine only from those grapes. They also consider those grapes to have unique characteristics which justifies making a wine from grapes sourced from that vineyard only.

There is no grape varietal listing on the label, which suggests that it is a blend of grapes, with no one grape taking up more than 75% of that blend.  Not necessarily a bad thing. Blending is an art, and when done correctly, the blend brings out the best in the component grapes. When done in bulk (for example with just a state notation), it can be a means to hide lesser quality grapes within a larger populaton of grapes.

Now let’s go back and look at the Bogle label. All we can tell from this is that there is at least 75% Merlot grape – it could be 100% Merlot, or it could have other grapes mixed in, up to 25%.  The Bogle is a very large producer, and one could surmise that the wine was produced in very high volume, from grapes sourced from multiple locations in California (if it were more specific, it would be on the label) and blended together. 

We can look at all this in a few ways. The broader the restrictions are (dependent upon the regional wine law), and the less specificity there is on the label, the more producers are able to blend different grapes, different quality, different areas to produce a wine.

On the plus side, that means that they can produce a wine even in difficult years. You can also be more confident that the wine you purchase will be reasonably consistent year to year, and that the costs to produce the wine (and therefore the cost to the consumer) will tend to be lower.  Wines made from specific vineyard sites could vary quite a bit from year to year (often referred to as vintage variation) and may have unique characteristics that may not suit your palate.

On the other hand, broader restrictions will allow bulk producers to do lots of blending of grapes to hide substandard harvests, add wines from previous years or other additives to bulk up the wine. You could lose all the individual characteristics of the grapes/vintage/location and get a fairly generic wine.

Although this is a topic in and of itself, reading a label can also give you hints on why the wine is priced as it is. Wine made with grapes sourced from small, high quality vineyards (small yield) in regions where the land itself is expensive (e.g. Napa or Burgundy) and made by good producers (good reputation for consistently good wines) will necessarily command a higher price. And vice versa.

To borrow a quote… The More You Know.