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Home » Wine, Ale and Spirits, information

Basically Wine Labels

Submitted by J @ JFN on Friday, 14 November 2008 Print this article Print this article View Comments
Basically Wine Labels

In my quest to learn more about wine, I discovered that the lables on wine bottles aren’t just stuck on to make the bottle look pretty! Not at all. Apparently we can learn a lot about the bottle we’re about to buy if we just know what to look for – so what do we look for then?  I now know that we’d start by looking at the name on the bottle to prevent ourselves from repeating horrible mistakes of the past, to see whether we’d like to try something new or stick to something trusted. Then we start looking at the clues, cleverly hidden in plain view for everyone that knows what to look for.

Now, since most of us have neither the time nor the inclination to go on one of these clever courses, here are a few tips to make reading lables fun. Unless we’re talking about promotional wine bottles, the lables usually contain the following:

The name of the wine and the cultivar from which it was made:
This is important because it tells you whether it’s a single cultivar (like Chardonnay), a blend (like Roodeberg ) or whether it’s red or white wine;

Producer and region:
This is important because it tells you whether the wine is made in eg. Stellenbosch, Franshchoek or Paarl when you have to choose a wine from three different estates and each one is in a different place. Once you know, you can take into account the climate because that gives each wine a unique character.

The vintage
This is important because you’ll find out how old the wine is and it allows you to differentiate between good and bad harvests and when the wine should be drunk;
Alcohol percentage
This gives you the weight of the wine and this is important when it comes to food pairing. It seems logical to choose a wine with a slightly higher alcohol level with a richer dish to “cut” the richness – this is all it means.

Sulphur
This is rather perplexing and I’d be thrilled if someone could explain to us how a wine can be completely free of sulphur. The sulphur is used to preserve the wine, help to mature it and prevent oxidization but is it possible that there is absolutely no sulphur in organic wines?  White wines contain more sulphur than red wines;
Private Selection and Reserve
These words are usually  found on bottles that cost a lot. It’s quite handy because it will tell you whether it comes from a really good harvest and whilst usually good (because those winemakers really do know their stuff) you should try this for yourself and draw your own conclusions;

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  • I did some reading on sulphite declarations on wine labels and noticed that there are only two countries in the world where this is mandatory. They are the USA and Australia.

    The EC's allowed levels are 160mg per liter for white wine, 210 mg per liter for red and 260 mg per liter for sweet wine - with the exception of Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese.
  • You have no idea how much I appreciate this answer!! As you may have gathered that I am on a voyage to learn more about wine and am loving every sip of it.
    However, this sulphur question, as you can see, has been bugging me.

    I appreciate the input so much and love the detail - as do the readers.
  • Hi J @ JFN

    I also got an answer for you on your question re sulphur and organic wines - from Johan Delport, winemaker at Waverley Hills Organic Wines & Olives. www.waverleyhills.co.za

    See below

    An organic wine cannot be 100% sulphur free. Sulphur is used as a preservative and anti-oxidant in wine. In wine sulphur is used in the form of sulphur dioxide (SO2). The legally correct term to use and the phrase that must be on the label of ‘sulphur free’ wines are No Sulphites Added.

    The formation of sulphites is a natural by-product of the fermentation process during wine making, although it is in very small quantities. Therefore no wine can be sulphur free. To make a wine with this classification, you are not allowed to add SO2; hence the phrase No Sulphites Added.

    These wines do have a disadvantage to conventional wines when it comes to preservation and maturation. All wines do have natural compounds that also act as preservatives, like tannins (more in red wine that white wine), alcohol and a relative low pH and high acidity. Sulphur, however, is the best preservative. Wines with no sulphites added will not age as good as conventional wines and depending on the type of wine will have to be consumed within one to three years from harvest. You will also see that certain stockist of wines with no added sulphites will put a best before date on the wine.

    Not all organic wines are ‘sulphur free’. There are actually a very limited number of organic wine producers that does have wines available with no sulphites added. We at Waverley Hills are one of those brave people to do that.

    What makes an organic wine different from a conventional wine? We are not allowed to use any chemical pesticides and herbicides in our vineyards and also no chemical additives in our wines. This excludes the use of SO2 as a preservative. However, the levels of SO2 allowed in organic wines are lower than in conventional wines. A conventional wine may have up to 160mg/l of Total SO2 present in wine. Where organic wine may have between 70 and 100 mg/l of Total SO2 present in the wine, depending on the country where it is being sold. Total SO2 is just the form it is measured in. SO2 is also present in wine in other forms, i.e. free, bound and molecular. For the sake of this reply, I am not going into the technical differences between the forms of SO2.

    All wines are preserved with sulphur, even organic wines, except if the labels states No Sulphites Added. Certain wine labels states that there are sulphites added in the wine, but even the ones that have nothing on it also have sulphites added. Presently it is not enforced by law that a producer must state that there are sulphites added in a wine, but that is about to change. In due course all wines with added sulphites will have printed on the label - ‘Sulphites Added’.

    For people that suffer from asthma and migraines, it is better to drink organic wines because of its lower sulphite levels. It is even better for these people to drink wines with no added sulphites.


    Johan Delport
    Winemaker – Waverley Hills Organic Wines
  • Thanks so much Neel! I will do so.
  • You've certainly got some interesting labels here.

    Another excellent source of interesting wine labels can be found on www.winelabels.org. The owner of the site (Peter May) also wrote Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Graped with a collection of interesting wine labels.
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