There is a great range of Wine labels. They can be plainly simple to elegant and fancy. If the wine is made in the US, there is a standard of information that will certainly be visible on the label. And here is how you can figure it out, and what it means.
Brand/Producer
- This seems straightforward: the producer is who makes the wine. However, sometimes the wine label won’t name the producer, but a specific brand (example: Joe Shmoe Winery creating Average Joe wine). It’s a way for one producer to have several different brands, each with a different aesthetic.
State/County/AVA/Variety
- The geographic area printed on the wine label depends on where most of the grapes used to make the wine were grown. The required percentage of grapes grown varies from state to county to AVA and so on. American wine labels typically list the primary grape used in the wine as well, as is common in the New World. Sub-geographic regions can also differ in grape percentage strictness. The general rule is that if geographic region is determined by grape variety, county, or state, at least 75% or more of the grapes must have been grown there. If the geographic region is AVA specific, 85% or more of the grapes must have been grown there.
Vintage
- This one is easy: it’s simply the year the grapes were grown and harvested.
Name & Address
- The name and address of the producer will always be there, but depending on how involved the winemaker is with the rest of the wine’s process, there will be some other info as well. For instance, to be called estate-bottled, a wine not only has to be grown in an area owned or operated by the winery, but crushed, fermented, finished, aged, and bottled on-site. Additionally, the winery and vineyard have to be located in one viticulture area.
Alcohol Content
- This is the percentage of alcohol in the bottle. It’s measured by ABV, which is the percentage, as opposed to proof (example: 40% ABV, not 80 proof).
Volume
- How much wine, in milliliters, is in the bottle?
Health Info
- This is the stuff that you probably know – don’t drink while pregnant or operate machinery, a friendly message from the government. Additionally, any wine sold from state to state that has 10 or more parts per million of sulfites has to say “contains sulfites.”
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