Reading Wine Labels
At times buying wine can be quite the feat. it gets complicated, even for connoisseurs. With so many styles and brands available, finding the perfect wine for your table can be a little tasking. Forcing you down an unyielding rabbit hole.
Feeling the
texture of the wine label used to be a promising start. Good quality paper and
all that. At least, that was the idea. Better quality labels meant better wines.
Strange, I know, but it worked (for some wines). Now? In the age of targeted
marketing? Not so much. Some labels are very misleading, disguising bad (Rather; under
par) wines as quality gems.
So how do
you outsmart the store clerk and find an excellent wine for your buck?
Reading the
Label. Labels might inform you a great deal more than the clerk would. Though,
granted, most these days are quite knowledgeable. To make this easy, we'll use
wines we either curate for the Paso Robles Wine Club or wineries we visit
during the fun, tailored tours with The Wine Wrangler.
This Derby Estate Sparkling Pinot Noir.
Brand /Winery Name: Derby Wine Estates
Vintage 2007; the year the grapes in this bottle
were harvested.
Varietal:Pinot Noir is the principle grape
used to make this wine.
Style: Methode Champenoise- A traditional French style of making
Champagne. Indicating it might have some barrel influences, buttery notes and
crisp acidity.
Region; San Luis Obispo County.
Adelaida Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
Winery/Estate; Adelaida Vineyards & Winery
Varietal; Cabernet Sauvignon
Region; Paso Robles, California
Vintage; 2013
What to consider;
Producer names can be the winery name or rather the person/company
that made the wine. This might appear in bold or smaller text than the
prominent brand name.
Region; steer you to where the grapes came from. If it scopes a
broad region, say the label says: Paso Robles, then you might be right to
assume the grapes were sourced from different vineyards. Wines like that might
be of good buying value. This ones set themselves apart by being specific to
their county/District, hence a marker of higher quality.
Vineyard/Plot; Labels that indicate specific
vineyard blocks are of exceptional quality. These succeed in that.
Vintage wines should be preferred to non-vintage wines (NV) which
are lower value. NV wines might represent a blend of various vintages to keep
the flavour uniform.
Back Labels
These
contain further information that would have cluttered the look of the front.
Such as;
Alcohol Percentage;though not shown here; ABV above
13.5% typically involves wines that are richer and fuller in body, these wines
have a markedly fruitier nose.
Sulphites Warning; unless you are allergic to dried
mangos/apricots; they have about 1,000-4,000 ppm (parts per million) compared
to wines with just a little over 300 ppm of wine. Most countries support strict
regulations on just how much S02 can be used in wine.
Finned/Unfinned; this means filtered.Traditionally,
protein based agents like egg whites or isinglass are used. Yeast molecules
attach to become larger solids that can be sieved out. This should be of no
alarm if you are vegan. There are filtering agents that do not use these
methods, sometimes labels say; no animal products used.
Of course, you could always join the Paso Robles Wine Club and we'll make sure you get a great bottle of wine with each shipment :)
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