That Wine May Not Be Exactly as Labeled

More precisely, the bottle may not contain exactly what the label says. It turns out there is wiggle room and some vintners may be taking advantage of this. Surprised? Should you be concerned? Let's look at some of the federal regulations.

The vintage date is the year you see on almost every wine label (unless the wine is from multiple years). This is the year the grapes were grown. Federal law says at least 95% of the grapes must be from that year.

In Champagne, many of the great wines
are traditionally non-vintage

Varietals are the kinds of grapes in the wine. To be labeled with a varietal it must be 75% of that wine. That is, if it says Cabernet Sauvignon there must be at least 75%. The wine could be 100% Cab, it could have 25% of anything else. Quality Cabs might have a few percentage of other Bordeaux grapes like Merlot of Cabernet Franc.

Then there's where the grapes are from. If you use a government area like California or Sonoma County it only has to have 75% of the grapes from there. This could mean a wine labeled Sonoma County might have 25% of its juice from cheaper Central Valley grapes. Again, that doesn't mean it will, but it could -- especially in the cheaper wines. If the wine is labeled with an official viticultural area, such as Sonoma Valley or Napa Valley, then 85% must be from there.

There are other labeling laws, but this will suffice for the point I'm making here. That being if you pick up a bargain Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and it isn't quite what you expected well maybe it got a bunch of Syrah in it and some of that is grown elsewhere.

Are all the grapes from California? Where in California?
Fresno? Napa? How much of the wine is actually Merlot?
There isn't even a vintage date, but the wine sure is cheap (about $8)

Some states are trying to pass local laws to override the feds. Oregon wants a Willamette Pinot Noir to be 100% Pinot from Willamette. Texas wants any wine labeled as from Texas to be 100% Texas grapes, not 25% of it brought in from California, for instance.

The question should be how many consumers actually care. Maybe most of them just want a good wine at a good price. It may not matter if their Merlot from Paso Robles has 20% Petit Verdot from the Central Valley as long as they like it and it helps keep the price down.