Heading into your local wine store and selecting a great wine can be an anxiety-producing experience, especially for the beginner wine drinker. Not only that… the same experience can be had at a vineyard or wine tasting. Beginners are typically at least a little bit mystified by the process of choosing an excellent wine from reading the label on the wine bottle. You don’t know precisely what it is you’re looking at or what it means. For you, here is some need-to-know information on reading wine labels:
Wine bottle labels are fun to look at, but the process of deciphering what all this information means is daunting. You have noticed that some wine connoisseurs spend an inordinate amount of time scrutinizing wine labels and figure you should probably take some tips from the experts.
On most bottles of wine, you will find two labels – front and back – with different information written on each. Most wine bottlers will make the front label with the required government information very small in comparison to a larger back label with interesting logos and designs.
Front Label: Where the Boring Stuff Is
Well… not boring stuff, but here is where you will find certain government-required information. The United States government has fairly stringent guidelines for wine bottle labeling. You will find the following information of bottles sold in the U.S.:
- Alcohol content
- Type of wine
- Name of bottler
- Volumetric size
- Obligatory “contains sulfites” message
- Health warnings about alcohol use
Back Label: Where the Fun Stuff Is
OK, now get this straight – when you walk into most wine stores, it isn’t the front label that you’ll see first. Store owners typically turn the back label to the front of the shelf to capture the consumer’s attention. It is the visually appealing “back” labels that help sell bottles of wine.
There are a few words you want to pay attention to on the back label to get an understanding of how to choose a good bottle of wine:
- Reserve: Optional wording that appears on the back label if the wine has been aged for an additional time at the factory before bottling
- Estate: Optional wording that means that the wine was bottled at the same winery where the grapes were grown
There’s some other interesting information you may see on the back label – whether it is award-winning, if a limited amount is available, even if the grapes were crushed by foot!
Make Learning How To Read Wine Labels Fun
You can learn to read wine bottle labels by actually heading into a store and carefully perusing the shelves. Pick up a few bottles and check the front and back labels. Do some research before you go – so that you know what you’re looking at – about different famous wineries, bottling locations, or the types of grapes that are used to create different types of wine.
