SMOKE AND MIRRORS...

You know how your children trick you? As in, “Dad told me I could have this entire bag of M&Ms,” or when they ‘pretend’ to be asleep and you sneak out of the room, but they are wide awake? OR my favorite, “Dad already gave me a bath,” as the dirt is smeared across my son’s body. Yeah, my kids are angels; I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Wine labels can be equally deceitful. You pick up a bottle and you see Private Reserve, ‘old vines’, or Grand Vin. It is all smoke and mirrors. The trick to wines is figuring out what you are looking at, to know whether it means something to you or not. Also, an American wine has to announce which type of grape the wine is, for example, “Santa Barbara Chardonnay,” whereas Europe tends to announce the terroir. Take “Montrachet” for example. If you don’t know regions, it’s hard to figure out that this is also a Chardonnay grape from a region in France.

The European Union has done a lot of work to make sure that what goes on the wine label is helpful and less deceitful, but there are a lot of terms thrown around that have become common and yet mean nothing.

Grand Vin. You see this term a lot on wine bottles in France. It means “great wine”. The wine maker might think it is great, but it’s an unregulated term. Just like when my son makes me sand cakes, and calls them edible. Same thing here – it has no reflection of the quality of the wine, or quality period.

Old Vine. This term is thrown around a lot when talking about Zinfandels. There have been a few heated discussions about how old a vine needs to be to qualify for old. Maybe 20? 30? 50 years? Again, there are no rules governing this label: old vine, ancient vine, or heritage vines could be a year old. Again, kinda like how my son thinks I’m old. It’s all relative and not necessarily reflective of reality. I tell him I’m 20 and he laughs. I don’t know why.

Private Reserve or private selection. This term used to, and I say used to, mean a wine-maker would reserve some of the grapes if they believed it was of a special quality, and make a wine with it and label as such. No more.  This term has no legal status. My son could tell my daughter his Superman collection is a ‘private reserve,’ and it would mean about the same thing on a label. Nothing, although I will take wine over Superman, in case you were wondering.

Superieur. Sounds good, doesn’t it. I’m pretty sure my older daughter says this to her sister daily. As in I am ‘superior’ to you. This actually means the wine has a slightly higher alcohol content in some cases (usually Italy and France).

Estate Bottled. This is simple – it means the winery grew the grapes and bottled the wine. In the United States, this term has no meaning or legal status.

Château Domaine. Again, it refers to wine estate, not quality.

Reserve. This term is not regulated, except in Italy and Spain. In the United States, it is common to see ‘Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve’.  Guess what?  It means absolutely nothing. In Italy and Spain, however, it has meaning – by law, the wine has been aged for a particular amount of time before being sold. For example, Chianti is a well known wine from Italy. You find Chianti to have three possible labels:

Chianti Regular: Must be made of 75% Sangiovese, and a mix of white and red grapes are permitted for the rest of the wine.

Chianti Classico (DOCG) will have a black rooster on the neck of the bottle announcing that it is a Classico. It is 80% Sangiovese, with only red grapes allowed to make up the rest of the blend, although most of the time you will find these wines to be 100% Sangiovese. Minimum 12% alcohol and 12 months aged in oak barrels.

Chianti Riserva, which means ‘reserve’ in Italian. This the best – it has been aged 2 years in oak with a minimum 3 months bottle aging and 12.5% minimum alcohol content.

A few good things to be aware of:

Spanish wine labels describe how the wine is aged.  You will find the following terms on most bottles: Joven, Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva. This will help when you are looking at wine labels.

Joven may or may not have spent time in oak, for immediate release.

Crianza is aged for a minimum 24 months; 6 months are spent in small oak barrels, and white and rose must be aged for 18 months.

Reserva – generally wines made from better vintages. Must be aged 36 months, with at least 12 months in small oak barrels.

Gran Reserva – These wines are made in exceptional vintages (i.e., really good years). Red wines must be aged 60 months, with 18 months in small oak barrels.

So next time you’re in a wine store, feel a little more educated! Read the label! Next up deciphering the code of French wines!