Reading Wine Labels With a Jaded Eye

This isn't another piece about how to read everything on an American wine label -- producers, growing area, vintage, etc. This is about items you may want to give a cautious eye to. Why? Because everything may not be as it seems.

Reserve

There is no legal definition for this word on a wine label meaning anybody can call any wine a reserve. The honest folks use reserve to denote what they consider their best wine. A few not so honest folks will put the word reserve on a crappy wine believing people will pay more or at least choose it over one without that word on the label.

When you see reserve on a premium wine what does this mean to you? It will be more expensive. Is it worth the extra cost? I dunno.

Old Vine

There's no legal definition for old vine either. What does it mean? Usually wine people say it means vines over 50 years old. Some will say the vines must be head-pruned rather than trellised. The older a vine gets the lower the yield. Does that mean better quality. I dunno. But usually lower production per acre of vineyards means more expensive wine. Is there a difference between a wine from a 20 year old vineyard and one from a 100 year old vineyard? Yes. Is the older one better? I dunno.

You mostly see this term with Zinfandel because old vine zin got to be a think a few decades ago as people got to appreciate the old head-pruned pre-Prohibition wines and they were mostly Zinfandel.

A Youtube video on younger vines vs. old

Alcohol Percentage

This is something I definitely look at on the wine label. You just need to know that a wine labeled as 14.5% doesn't mean it has 14.5% alcohol. There's a sizeable range allowed. For instance, a wine labeled 14.5 and one labeled 15.5 could both actually have the same alcohol level. Again, the honest wineries will be pretty darn close to that number. But there's no doubt some under-report this to make their wines look better. Think of this number as a guideline.