04/17/07 Wine Labels 2

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. On yesterday's program we learned that the old word wine producers name their wines for the place they come from. Whereas much of the new world, which includes the America's, Australia and South Africa, will primarily name wines for the kind of grape used to make it; such as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. Today we'll talk further about reading the label on a bottle of wine. In addition to the differences in labeling place of origin versus grape type we also have certain wine labeling laws in the U.S. dictating what percentage of the wine in the bottle must be from the grape listed. A minimum of 75% of the wine in your bottle that reads Cabernet Sauvignon on the label must be from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. This poses a problem if the winemakers realize that they could make an even better wine by combining several different grape types with none of them representing 75% of the wine's blend. This is dealt with by creating what is referred to as a proprietary name. Names which are created by the winery to distinguish that product as a blended wine. They have names which very often refer to a Meritage or Bordeaux style blend. Remember it's not meri tahj it's Meritage! We are also seeing many more blended white wines on the market which is increasing the number of white wines with proprietary names. Again, I encourage you to ask your wine merchant for help. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.