Wine label is the essence of wine as it speaks about the wine, its type, its location, alcohol content, winery etc. Mostly the labels are the only source of information for the consumers to judge the wine before buying it. Also wine labels are always made attractive as the buyer first sees the wine label before considering to buy it. Reading wine labels has also always been confusing for the consumers though the New World wine labels are quite user friendly.

Here are some features of wine labels which will also help you to read the labels. Design- Wineries give a lot of importance to the wine label design as it is said that consumers shop through their eyes. Some wineries change their labels every year while there are some who haven’t changed their label designs since many years. Wineries also use images of works by famous painters like Picasso, Da Vinci and others famous artists to make the labels more appealing.

Description- Most of the labels have the name of producer of the wine printed on the top with the wine’s name following it. European wines are mostly named by the region where they are produced while New World wines are usually named by the variety of grape. Some labels also carry the type of wine like sparkling, dessert etc. Very often there is also a description of wine on the back label.

Region- The rules of different countries differ as to which region appears on the wine label. The regions of European wines can be very small like Medoc, while in New World it can be large like South-East Australia. A distinction also needs to be made among the regions where the wines were bottled and region the grapes were grown.

Grape Variety- Mostly a particular percentage of a single grape variety should be used for that variety to appear on the label. When you don’t see any grape variety mentioned, it is mostly a blended wine.
Vintage- The year of the grape harvest (and not the year when the wine was produced) is known as Vintage and it is usually found on the front label.

Other- Other things also found on the label are the alcohol content in the wine shown in percentage, the volume of wine, which mostly is a standard 750ml and sometimes also some health warnings like those in US.