We’ve all seen them, in the wine isles or supermarkets and wine stores. Shelf talkers and tags with lots of adjectives and exclamation points. Attractive bottle labels with dates, names and logos. But what the hell do they all mean?
Well, there's plenty you can figure out, by reading between the flowery lines. Let’s start with the talkers and tags. They can be the biggest load of bullshit, but they can be deciphered. First off, make sure the name and vintage on the talker matches the bottle it’s posted near. You’d be surprised how often these are wrong. Vintages change, but the talker from the last vintage is left up, or worse a different wine from the same winery gets put in the space, but the talker remains the same.
Now, let’s get into the lingo. First off, forget the scores. They’re just an indication somebody liked the wine, but it’s the tasting notes that tell you why. Those notes also tell you a bit about what’s in the bottle. Words like “buttery,” “creamy,” and “vanilla” can mean the wine’s had a big oak treatment. And if the wine is really cheap, it can mean the wine didn’t see actual oak barrels, but had bags of oak chips sunk into it, while it sat in steel tanks. If that sounds dishonest, it is. Words like “racy,” “vibrant,” “bracing,’ and “clean” can tell you the wine has zippy acidity. Just what I look for in Sauvignon Blancs. “Tannic,” “structured,” “old world,” and “firm” can mean a red wine made in the old-school, lower-alcohol way, that needs time to come around. Wines like these aren’t big, fruity friendly wines that drink well young. Conversely, the words “big,” “soft,” “ripe,” “rich,” “friendly,” “forward,” “new world” usually refer to reds that are bigger in alcohol, lower in tannins made for drinking now.
So, what about the labels on the bottles? I’ll use the front label of a recent fave for example: Franciscan Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Alc 13.5% by volume (in very small print). Pretty simple huh? Yes, and no. Let’s decode it. “Franciscan Estate” is the winery. “Napa Valley,” means no less than 75% of the grapes came from California’s Napa Valley, but they can come from different vineyards. A wine with a “California” designation can come from anywhere in the state. A wine with a vineyard designation like “Stagecoach Vineyard,” or “Estate Vineyard,” means 95% of the grapes came from that one vineyard. “Cabernet Sauvignon” means no less than 75% of the grapes in the wine are Cabernet Sauvignon, but that 25% can be anything else. Often Merlot or Cabernet Franc, but can be Zinfandel, Syrah, or others. “2007,” means no less than 95% of the wine came from the 2007 vintage. But that’s not all, it also means the grapes were harvested in 2007, not that the wine was bottled in 2007. The wine could have been barrel aged as long as 24 months before bottling. Most wineries will brag about extended aging on the back label. “Alc. 13.5% by volume,” tells you a lot. First, it’s a lower number, so the wine is more old-school, tannic and less ripe. It will taste more like where it was grown than a wine with a higher number. It's not a juicy, fruity wine. In whites a lower Alc % means higher acidity, and less super-ripe fruit.
Whew! That’s a whole helluva lot, isn’t it? And guess what, there’s more. This post has run on long enough. I’ll do a Part 2 later. But now you can find a bit of the truth locked in the shelf tags and labels of the next wine you look at.
Cheers,
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