Wine 101 - How To Read A Wine Label
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How to read a wine label is what we’ll be looking at in this part of our wine 101 guide…
If you buy wine, knowing how to read a wine label is a useful skill to have. Finding out what (and what not) to look for will help you buy wines that meet your perfectly your preferences. So, lets look at each aspect of a wine label individually.
The first thing to look for is the vintage, or the year the wine was produced; most wines are meant to be drunk immediately, so choose a bottle from a recent year. This particularly applies if youre looking for a fresh, lively, fruity wine at a reasonable price. Whilst some vintages are famous for certain wines, they tend to be quite expensive and, if you do want to buy such a wine, research on the internet or in magazines will be required.
Secondly, the geography; there are lots of famous regions and vineyards around the world (too many to list here) so this can be a bit of a lottery and unless you do prior research. However, a good rule of thumb is to choose a wine which label state a specific vineyard or town rather than a region. This is because many bad wineries will try to benefit from the name of the large region where they are located, even if their vineyards are in undesirable parts of the area.
Thirdly, the alcohol content; it’s recommended that you look for one at around 14% or less. Although you might think that buying a high alcohol wine represents better value for money, this isn’t true if you want to enjoy the product as a higher alcohol contents usually mean that the wine is unbalanced.
Lastly, the fine details; including information such as the dates the grapes were harvested and the wine was bottled, whether the grapes were grown and fermented at the same place (called estate-bottling), and the phone number of the winery are all positive signs. Details such as these add to a wines authenticity and indicate that the wine producer cares about and has faith in their product.
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