I received a call at the wine shop the other day from someone looking for a particular bottle of wine.
I field these types of requests all the time. Someone goes to dinner, or to a friend’s house, where they are introduced to a wine. They fall in love; they want to get their hands on some. If it’s a wine with which I’m not already familiar, I diligently do my homework to see if I can find out who sells it, how much it is, and if it’s available. Not to brag, but my sleuthing skills are pretty on point, and I can usually track the wine down within a day or two.
Unless, of course, I’m given the wrong information, or something gets lost in translation by the person reading the wine label.
This particular caller was looking for a sparkling brut called Ultraviolet, from Nevada. Nevada?! Hmmm. I have had the Ultraviolet cabernet sauvignon, and it’s made here in California by a super-talented winemaker named Samantha Sheehan. Was she making a sparkling wine in Nevada? It seemed odd, but who knows? After all, Gruet Winery makes delicious bubbles in New Mexico, and I’ve had several wines from Arizona. Maybe Samantha found an ideal spot in a cool-climate location in Nevada to make an avant-garde bottle of bubbles.
After a quick search, I found the wine in question, and it’s made here in California. In fact, right on the Ultraviolet website, it says “made from pinot noir grapes from Manchester Ridge vineyard, in the AVA region known as ‘islands in the sky’ located 2,000 feet above Anderson Valley, CA and 400 feet above the fog line.”
So why did this person think the wine was from Nevada? I spent the day pondering this until I finally had an “ah-ha!” moment.
Non-vintage. The sparkling wine was a non-vintage, which is abbreviated on the label as NV. Of course! It made perfect sense, and I could empathize with the thought that the capitalized letters “NV” could, and should, mean the state of Nevada.
This got me thinking about all the other nomenclature on wine labels that is confusing, cryptic and even perhaps a bit misleading. So here is your guide to decoding wine labels, and the important information to look for—and the garbledy-goop to ignore.
We’ve obviously covered the abbreviation for non-vintage, but did you know that term can be applied to still wines as well as sparkling? That’s right! Also, there are several very prominent wines on the market that are called “multi-vintage.” This means the grapes that went into that wine came from a blend of several different years. Most of the time, there won’t be anything to indicate the wine is from several vintages except for the omission of a year on the label. These blends are often labeled with a “lot number” or “barrel series number” to differentiate one bottling from the next.
For instance, the alcohol content, or ABV—alcohol by volume—can vary plus or minus by at least 1%.
While we’re on the topic of vintages, it’s also worth noting that even if a vintage year is printed on the label, only 85% of the grapes that went into that wine need to come from that harvest year. Fascinating, right?
Because winemaking isn’t an exact science, there are several other “facts” on a wine label that have some wiggle room.
For instance, the alcohol content, or ABV—alcohol by volume—can vary plus or minus by at least 1%. So that bottle of red wine that says it’s 14.8% ABV can actually be up to 15.8%. Whoa! Better pace yourself. If the wine is less than 14% alcohol, there can be a swing of up to 1.5%. Now, it should be said that this isn’t because the winemaker is trying to deceive you. The lack of accuracy comes from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, otherwise known as the TTB. This government entity regulates what is allowed on a wine label, what is mandatory, and what is forbidden. (As for the forbidden: no foul language; no naked ladies; and no stealing someone else’s name.) They require the labels to be submitted for approval in advance, and if we know anything about the government, it’s that nothing happens quickly. This is why many wines say they’re 14.5% ABV—it’s a fairly safe bet that the wine will fall somewhere between 13.5% and 15.5%.
Did you know that here in California, when the name of the grape is printed on the label, only 75% of that grape needs to be in that wine? A quarter of that wine can be from any other grape, and they don’t have to tell you. Any wine below that 75% threshold is labeled as a table wine, a blend, or simply a red or white wine. That’s a little loosey-goosey, if you ask me. Things get a little stricter when the label indicates a specific area, like Napa Valley, Sonoma Coast or Sta. Rita Hills, for example—then the requirement jumps to 85%. If a single vineyard is printed, a whopping 95% must come from that one vineyard site.
While the alcohol content and the region are mandatory pieces of information on the wine label, there are some optional tidbits that occasionally get thrown on there for “flair”—terms like “reserve,” “special selection” or “proprietor’s select” mean absolutely nothing legally. A winery’s “grand reserve” offering doesn’t technically have to be any different than their Tuesday-night-with-pizza swill. That’s not to say the wines with these special designations aren’t, in fact, superior to their often-less-expensive counterparts. At any reputable and ethical winery, they most certainly are. Often, these higher-tier wines come from better vineyard sites, are aged in finer oak barrels, and are made in much smaller quantities. It’s just important to note that unlike the wines from Spain and Italy—where the term “reserve” requires a longer time being aged, minimum alcohol levels, and a certain amount of fruit a vineyard can produce—these terms here don’t carry any regulated significance.
Now go forth, my educated wine-lovers, and decode that label like a pro!
Vine Social: Some Information on a Wine Label Has Value; Some Is Just There for flair is a story from Coachella Valley Independent, the Coachella Valley’s alternative news source.