of origin shown on the label.
•Net contents - the amount of wine in a bottle expressed in metric units (a typical bottle is 750 ml).
•Name and address – the name or trade name and address of the bottler or importer must appear on the label. Domestic wines will state “Bottled by” followed by the name and address of the bottler. Imported wines will state “Imported by” followed by the name and address of the importer.
•Estate bottled – means that 100% of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery that must be located in a viticultural area. The winery must crush and ferment the grapes, finish, age, process, and bottle the wine on their premises.
•Country of origin – required for all imported wines.
•Alcohol content – a statement of alcohol content in percent by volume appears on most labels. As an alternative some bottlers prefer to label wine with an alcohol content between 7 and 14 % as “Table Wine” or “Light Wine”.
•Declaration of sulfites – required on any wine intended for interstate commerce that contains 10 or more parts per million of sulfur dioxide. Not required for wines only sold in intrastate commerce.
•Health warning statement – all alcoholic beverages sold in America that contain 0.5% or more alcohol by volume must have a health warning. “Government warning” must appear in capital letters and bold type. The statement reads as follows:
GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.
Once you have mastered reading American labels, you may be tempted to try some international wines. If you look for French wines, be prepared for a shock. You will not find the grape name anywhere on the label – only a place name and a note about the name being controlled by the French government.
You have to really study French geography to get to know the various wine growing districts and to learn which wineries are using which grapes to make their wines. Otherwise you will have no idea of what you are drinking beyond knowing if it is a red or white wine.
Plan B is to seek the assistance of a good wine merchant. They can help get you past many of these unsettling decisions about which wine to buy. Once you find a wine you really like, remember the name so you can buy it again. Once you get the hang of wine terminology, you can offer up a good meaningful wine description to a wine merchant and they can steer you to several bottles in their shop that have those desirable characteristics.
Many wine shops also offer wine tastings on a routine basis. This provides you with an opportunity to learn about several wines without having to buy a full bottle to experiment. Ask to be put on the wine shop notification list for future wine tastings. Sometimes they will have a representative from the winery present to assist you in a better understanding of their particular wines being featured that day.
I have added an Appendix (see Appendix H – How to Interpret Wine Labels) for a detailed guide by country to help you interpret wine labels from the major wine producing countries in the world. Each country has different wine labeling regulations and each has unique words that mean different things.
…Wine bars
“Wine is bottled poetry.”
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Having a glass of wine at your local wine bar is one of life’s little pleasures if you are lucky enough to live near one. Typically you can slip into an empty chair and strike up a conversation with the bartender/owner/proprietor about what specials they have to offer that day. You may be interested in being placed on their mailing list to let you know when there are special tasting events being held. They may have a local expert in wine offering special classes on wine etiquette or wine history. There may be a wine company sales representative in town whose job it is to promote special brands of wines. It provides an ample opportunity for you to try a variety of different wines at a very special price. Recent wine bars that I have attended have offered 5 different Chilean wines in a tasting flight for $10. It is common to meet other wine buffs in the wine bars where you can strike up a good conversation about anything in the wine world. It is a great place to learn a lot about wine for a very inexpensive price. Your only challenge is to remember the proper way to hold a glass and the routine for wine evaluation.
For those who choose to be educated wine drinkers, learning about wine is a fascinating experience, full of new flavors, new places, and new friends.
Wine tastings are events designed to give enthusiasts the opportunity to sample a range of wines. The events can be very much like classes (seated, seminar-like events), or they can be more like parties (tasters milling around informally). Compared to a wine class, the participants at a wine tasting are more likely to have various levels of knowledge. Tastings don't come in beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels — one size fits all. Most local wine bars in wine shops offer weekly or monthly wine tastings at a modest price of $5 to $10 per tasting session that includes a free glass to take home. When attending these tastings keep in mind the object for the wine bar is to sell wine to you. Don’t let the proprietor dictate your taste – if you like it, buy it. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
Wine tastings are popular because they override the limitations of sampling wine alone, at home. At wine tastings, you can learn from your fellow tasters, as well as make new friends who share your interest in wine. Most importantly, you can taste wine in the company of some individuals who are more experienced than you, which is a real boon in training your palate.
Your local wine shop might sponsor wine-tasting events occasionally (apart from the informal sampling opportunities in the store itself) and they should also be aware of wine schools or other organizations that conduct wine tastings in your area.
…Wine tasting parties
“What grape to keep its place in the sun, taught our ancestors to make wine?”
- Cyril Connolly
If you've never been to a wine tasting party, be aware that there are a few matters of etiquette that apply. Familiarizing yourself with this etiquette will help you feel more comfortable. Otherwise, you're likely to be surprised or alarmed by what you see or hear.
Professional wine tasters long ago discovered that if they swallow every wine they taste, they're far less thoughtful tasters by the time they reach wine nine or ten. So spitting became acceptable. In wineries, professional tasters sometimes spit right onto the gravel floor or into the drains. In more elegant surroundings, they spit into a spittoon, usually a simple container like a large plastic cup (one per taster) or an ice bucket that two or three tasters share.
At first, naturally, some tasters are loath to spit out wine. Not only have they been brought up to believe that spitting is uncouth, but they've also paid good money for the opportunity to taste the wines. Why waste them?
You can drink all of your wine at a wine evaluation, if you wish — and some people do. But I don't advise that you do, for the following reasons:
•Evaluating the later wines will be difficult if you swallow the earlier ones. The alcohol
