04/16/07 Wine Labels

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran and today we are attempting to understand wine labels. The art and science of winemaking came to most of the new world, like the U.S. from Europe. In Europe, tradition is to name wines for their geographic origin. For example; Burgundy, Chablis, Chianti and Champagne are all the names of places. So the only way you'd know what's in a French Chablis, is to know that Chardonnay is the white grape that is by law grown there. Now in the new wine world of North and South America, Australia and South Africa most of the wines are labeled by identifying the type of grape the wine is primarily made from such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir etc. We consumers are becoming familiar with the types of grapes and that helps to develop comfort and discover wines that appeal to us. Now comes the monkey wrench. As winemaking evolves in the New World our wine makers are turning to the practice of blending several different types of grapes to make very appealing wines. Say the wine has a third Viognier, and two thirds combination of two other grapes. We really can not name it after one varietal when in reality it is the combination of several varietals. So what happens is a name for the wine is created. It is referred to as the winery's proprietary name. So we are basically going back to where we came from in the sense that the label isn't telling us much that we can understand without some previous background or knowledge of the winery. I recommend asking for help. We'll discuss wine labels further on tomorrow's program. And thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.