10/18/07 Understanding Wine Labels Part 2

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. On yesterday's program we learned the old word wine producers name their wines for the place they come from such as Chianti, in Italy or Chablis in France. 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 laws in the U.S. dictating what percentage of the wine in the bottle must be from the grape named on the label. So 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 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 created by the winery to distinguish that product as a blended wine. They have names like Opus One and Cain Five or Magnificat which very often refer to a Meritage blend. These wines are blends based on the Bordeaux tradition. Super Tuscans are wines renegade from the traditional Tuscan blends and may be combinations of traditional French and Italian varieties. 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.