You Can Judge a Wine by the Label

Unless you’re a wine professional, you probably don’t have time to taste hundreds of wines (enjoyable though that would be) in order to choose the right one for next week’s dinner party. Fortunately, any wine label will tell you enough about the bottle’s contents to at least rule it out, and many will hint that this may be the right one. In just ten minutes, you can learn enough about label-reading to at least fake it the next time you go to a nice restaurant. And the best place to start is French wine labels.

“Why French?” I hear you ask, and “Does this mean I have to learn the language?” The answer to the second is an emphatic No. You only need to recognize a few key words.

As for the first, if there’s one thing the French like as much as wine, it’s bureaucracy. (Guess where the word comes from.) Consequently, French wine production has been increasingly regulated for more than a hundred years, and the labels reflect that. You will always find certain information on every French label (in addition to volume, alcohol content, and producer name). Since the French are generally the world’s biggest producers and consumers of wine, most other countries adopted similar labeling policies (if not the same degree of regulation).

The most important word to look for is Appellation. This indicates that the wine has been produced using approved methods for its region, has a taste characteristic for that region, and is of a certain minimum quality. Any grower in a region can apply for this designation, but it is only granted after official inspection.

Since the location and production methods are considered, in a sense it’s the vineyard that gets the designation - and historically, there were problems with vintners selling inferior wines from certified vineyards. But these days the end product is strictly controlled and must meet minimum requirements. In fact, another word to look for is contrôlée. Looks just like what it is. Only with more hats than you’re used to. Occasionally, the whole official phrase Appellation d’origine contrôlée will be abbreviated as AOC.

If you see the words qualité supérieure after, that actually means the wine is not quite as good. The same committee regulates AOC and AOVDQS, so the production and taste of these wines is reliably consistent. Just, well, not quite as good.

If you’re the adventurous type, be on the lookout for the phrase vin de pays. This is a wine produced entirely within the region, but containing a single grape variety. Although it doesn’t qualify for the AOC regulations, it has been approved by the local committee.

Finally, there’s vin de table. If you lived in a French village, you’d take your liter jug up to the co-op and fill it with this for everyday drinking. If you’re driving to the store to pick up something to share with friends, you can do better.

Somewhere on there, you’ll see the name of the region where the wine was grown (don’t be fooled by words like Haut and Supérieur here - it just means “upper” when applied to regions). It may be above or below the AOC or it may be sandwiched in between the Appellation and the contrôlée. This is handy, because all AOC wines from a region will have a certain similarity. If you find a wine you like, give some of its neighbors a try, too!

Once you find a region you like, you can begin learning about smaller designations within that region and its local classifications, such as the crus of Bordeaux and Burgundy.