subject: What Does The Label Say? Understanding Winelabelsin The Us Pt. 2 [print this page] Continuing from the first article, What Does the Label Say? Understanding Wine Labels in the US pt. 1, were going to cover the other government requirements for wine bottle labels and explain why all of the information is there.
Where and Who Bottled
Regulation requires that the name and address of the bottler be put down clearly when they make wine labels. Theres also a surprising amount of information to glean from this. For instance Made and Bottled By may only be used if; the winery processed at least 10% of the wine, produced a sparkling wine from secondary fermentation, or changed the class of the wine by adding other ingredients to it.
When the named winery performs any type of cellar treatment outlined in regulations, Cellared, Vinted, or Prepared are used.
If the winery blended two wines of the same class together at that location, Blended and Bottled by is used.
If nothing extra was done at all except simply bottling the wine than labels will often read something like Selected, Perfected, or the obvious Bottled By.
Ultimately this doesnt tell you much of anything about how the wine will taste because what is far more important is the appellation (or region of origin) and vineyard location. This is sometimes included on the label, and can be very useful when you want to track down wine from a particular vineyard.
Quantity of Contents
Due to a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1977, all labels must clearly show the metric quantity of the bottles contents. While it is required to use metric, its not uncommon for it to be followed with an equivalent U.S. fluid measurement.
Due to regulations, any quantity over 3 liters must be increased by even liters (so 4 or 5 liters is fine but 4.5 liters or 3 liters and 6 oz isnt. It can never be an incomplete liter!) The quantity of contents can also never be covered or obscured, even with a stores sticker, and must be plainly visible.
To ensure the Truth in Labeling laws as well as to meet proper taxes, a bottle has to be filled within 1% of that labeled quantity.
Obviously size does not account for wine flavor but there are a few interesting quirks about it. For instance, wine tends to age better and oxidize slower in large bottles. While that isnt a guarantee, it is what makes large bottles of old wine preferable to smaller ones. Sparkling wine also tends to taste best from a Magnum sized bottle, which is a 1.5 liter capacity, due to the way its made.
Warning stating Contains Sulfites
After July 9, 1987 any wine bottled must have a label attached declaring the wine contains sulfites. It can be located anywhere at all on the bottle, but it must be present and easy to see.
Sulfites (much more commonly known as sulphur/sulfur) is a highly common element found in nature. In fact its used for a variety of processes like making matches and bleaching food starches. Sulfur is an easily digestible element that is critical to life itself, but requires a label as 1% of the population has been found to be sensitive to the sulfur compound.
The reason why sulfites are used at all is because they help to keep the wine from spoiling as well as improve the color of the wine. Wine made using sulfur is also far better tasting and better aging than in wine that doesnt use sulfites. In fact, wine makers have been using sulfur in the process for centuries. While many would gladly change over to an alternative component that doesnt have any negative side effects, theres still yet to be a suitable replacement for all of the positive effects of sulfur.
Government Warning
After November 18, 1989 any alcoholic beverage for sale in the United States is required by law to display a health warning somewhere on its labeling. These are the usual advisories against drinking while operating machinery and the risk of birth defects in pregnant women and are found on nearly every alcoholic product sold within the United States.
Sometimes this information is a little hard to find because, believe it or not, wines are frequently displayed with the back label facing out.
Why would they make wine labels that are displayed in this manner? While the regulations state that a lot of the information must be put on the front label, they do not classifythe front label. So many times the producer will design wine labels for the back of the bottle that are larger and more colorful which gets them displayed towards the customer despite not having all of the mandated information on it. Rest assured, the information is there but it may very well be in small font on a tiny label.
