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So what does a wine label tell us about what is in the bottle? For the beginner it says a lot and for the enthusiast not as much as it could!

In the wine store, what inspires you to pick a bottle of wine may well be the label design, so there are a lot of interesting artistic labels out there. But design aside, what can we learn about the contents?

First is the name of the producer — the company making the wine in simple terms. Producers can offer many varieties or a single variety. A producer can be the Village Co-op working for the growers to a beautiful estate growing several varieties.

They may sell their product directly or sell it in bulk to a “bottler” who has an extensive marketing system set up. The bottler will sell to an importer whose name appears also. What we learn here is that certain names have a quality they stand by or market niche in which they specialize.

In simple terms these names tell us if the wine comes from a good area and is handled with care, or if it is a mix of a bunch of different growers’ grapes with the goal of producing a drinkable wine for the grocery store shelf. With a little experimentation, we should know the essentials of the wine inside.

The grapes

Most bottles today tell you the grape(s) used in the wine. There maybe a wine variety name like Bordeaux or Champagne which are blends of different grape varieties, and these can change within the area. Some labels tell you the grape used like Pinot Noir, and others tell you the name of the wine like Beaujolais.

I would think that most people today would like the name of the grape(s) used on the label, but this information will not always be helpful. For example, if a label just said Chardonnay, we would be wrong in thinking they all tasted alike. Wines like Chablis and Mâcon are Chardonnay but do not taste alike, so it is nice to have specific regions (appellations) named. Understanding all this is something you can work on in your spare time.

Year of production

On most bottles you should consider the year of production. Some years like 2007 for Cote Du Rhone are exceptional, but you will only know that if you take the time to read up on vintages. There are tables on the Internet giving you this information. Weather conditions do have a major effect on wine, and the main trick in making the everyday bottle is to change the blends around so the wine has a consistent flavor from year to year. Very inexpensive wines will not have a year because they are totally blended.

You will notice that alcohol content is expressed as a percentage, such as 14.5 percent, which is very informative. In the last 20 years, average wine has been getting stronger. It used to be that wine ran around 11-12 percent, but you only see those levels in some German or less expensive blends today.

The increase from 12 to 14 percent indicates an 18-percent increase in the amount of alcohol in your glass! That affects the taste and the effect. Most of us today are now used to the taste of these new levels. Part of the new wine-making process involves leaving the gapes on the vine longer so they ripen more and produce these stronger wines with more depth in taste.

The vinter

The individual person — the winemaker or vinter — is being recognized now on some labels. People like Kim Crawford of New Zealand have a reputation that makes me buy a bottle!

This is a good idea inasmuch as it encourages the individual winemakers touch. Wines should be different. Today too many wines are produced by the “wine university” graduate, and they make a MacDonald’s style wine around the world. They all taste the same!

Mondavi from California tried to buy a large tract of land in France, but was stopped because he would have “imposed” what he thought was the taste, not what the terrior — the soil and tradition — produced. Wine is different, and this makes it fun.

The warnings

These are good, but perhaps now we should include some of the benefits just to be fair! The last word on sulfites is that they do not cause headaches and are present in many foods as a preservative. They occur to some level naturally in the wine fermentation process as well.

There are more organic wines becoming available, and the wine industry is being encouraged to step this up. In France it is expected that in 10 years most wines will be organic — many are today but do not pursue the designation because it incurs a lot of red tape.

There are a couple of organic wines available here, so give them a try. Some believe they will not keep in our climate, so they must be drunk young.

Enjoy!

When Jim Brown isn’t sampling wine all over the world — he’s in Italy right now — you will find him at the ERA Real Estate office in Saltmills Plaza.