Dr. David Muhleman

The-Wine-Educator    WINE & SPIRITS EDUCATION AND CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE CONSUMER AND THE PROFESSIONAL

Reading a Wine Bottle

I started to call this article “reading a wine label” but there is lot you can learn about a wine by reading the bottle as well. (Most assumptions made in this article apply to wines that cost more than $10 a bottle. Wines that cost less than $10 a bottle often reflect an effort to keep the price down by standardizing bottles, labels, shipping boxes, corks, etc).

There is an old saying not to judge a book by its cover, but there is a lot you can learn from a wine by properly reading the bottle and the label. Much of what am going to explain have “exceptions to the rules.” But if you have no other information to go on, these “rules of thumb” work rather well.

First, if the bottle is in the shape of a chicken, or boat, or violin, or some other object; the chances are the bottle will be better than the wine. Not to say I haven’t bought many of those shaped bottles, but I bought them for the bottle and not the wine inside. And normally, wine that comes in a creatively shaped bottle will tend to be sweeter, rather than dry.

Second, there are three basic wine bottle shapes; Bordeaux bottles with high shoulders, Burgundy bottles with “soft” shoulders, and Hock bottles with no shoulders. (The shoulders being the slant of the bottle below the neck). Wines that are commonly soft (chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, etc) often come in bottles with soft shoulders. Wines that are usually bold (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, etc) come in bottles with high shoulders. And wines such as Rieslings, Gewurztraminer, dessert wines, often come in bottles with no shoulders.

The point being, that if you find a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Chardonnay in a Hock bottle with no shoulders, it will probably not be a good wine. Likewise, Rieslings that come in Bordeaux bottles are usually mass produced, and lower quality. So just looking at the bottle and the varietal can tell you a lot about a wine, without even reading the label (and some times you simply can’t read the label).  And even if you don’t know the varietal (e.g., the label says Hermitage and you don’t know what varietal is used in making Hermitage) you can look at the bottle and know if it is a soft wine, or a bold wine.

Finally, barring all other information, look at the other wines on the shelf. If all the Chardonnay’s are in Burgundy bottles and there is one chardonnay in a Bordeaux bottles, the chances are the one in the Bordeaux bottle looks out of place for a reason. That one can easily be eliminated from your selection decision.

So you find the right shape of bottle and now you turn your attention to the label. If it’s a French wine, with words written in English, you can be assured that wine was made for export to an English speaking country. If it were a French wine made to be consumed in France, the label would be in French (the same for Italian wine, Spanish wine, etc). And just because a wine is made for export does not mean it’s of lower quality; it just means it’s of different quality. French wines for English-speaking export may be less acidic, more fruit-forward, and not meant to age as long.

So, the language the label is written in tells you something about the wine. Likewise, a back label means export, as do the words “contains sulfites.” If it were a French wine (or Italian wine) made for consumption in their home country, there will be no back label and no “sulfite” statement.

Other items on the label; appellation, vintage, alcohol by volume (abv), all tell you part of the wine’s story. The smaller the appellation the more unique the flavor (good or bad), vintages make huge difference (outside of California and Washington where vintages mean very little), and abv can tell you sweetness, and body. So if the label says “2003, Asti Spumonte, 5.5% abv” You can bet the wine is very sweet, from the Asti region and has bubbles, and from a very warm vintage. All good things if you like that style of wine.

But, the biggest piece of information is often over looked. “Cellared and bottled by…” means the winery did not make the wine. They bought the wine already made. “Produced by…” means they made it; as does “vinted by…”

Wine that is sold by someone who did not make the wine is often inferior to wine that is sold by the person(s) who made it. So look at the bottle, look at the label, and begin to understand that you really can judge a wine by its label (or shape).

Until next time, drink good wine.