{"id":2012,"date":"2021-12-29T17:59:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2012"},"modified":"2021-12-29T17:59:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:59:25","slug":"read-the-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2012","title":{"rendered":"Read the Label"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Often when we are in a winery\u2019s tasting room, we ask the servers to show us the bottle.\u00a0 Of course, it\u2019s not the bottle we want to see; they\u2019re all pretty much the same.\u00a0 (Actually, that\u2019s not true.\u00a0 There are Bordeaux bottles with round shoulders and Burgundy bottles with sloping ones.)\u00a0 What we really want to see is the label, or actually two labels: one on the front of the bottle and one on the back.<\/p>\n<p>The servers usually look at us quizzically.\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u201d they seem to be asking, but they do anyway?<\/p>\n<p>So here\u2019s the answer to their question and some advice on how you can take advantage of the labels as well.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The look of the label tells you something about the wine.<\/strong> Great wines don\u2019t need silly labels.\u00a0 A classic label gives us an idea of the winery\u2019s owners\u2019 approach to making wine.\u00a0 A picture of the ch\u00e2teau or some great art are fine, but a lot of bright colors or unusual type scripts generally indicate that they\u2019re more interested in catching your eye in a shop than letting the wine\u2019s reputation speak for itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label1-e1640800315331.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2013 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label1-e1640800315331-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label1-e1640800315331-169x300.jpg 169w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label1-e1640800315331-768x1365.jpg 768w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label1-e1640800315331-576x1024.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You can ignore a lot that\u2019s on the label.<\/strong> It contains some warnings that you\u2019re not interested in, such as the fact that the wine contains nitrates (they all do) and that you shouldn\u2019t drink and drive (you already know that).\u00a0 You\u2019ll learn the winery\u2019s address, amount of wine in the bottle and the URL of their web site.\u00a0 None of this is very important to you but the government insists on it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label2-e1640800370263.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2014 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label2-e1640800370263-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label2-e1640800370263-169x300.jpg 169w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label2-e1640800370263-768x1365.jpg 768w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/etude_label2-e1640800370263-576x1024.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Look for the interesting information<\/strong>. The label should tell you the name of the winery.\u00a0 On top of telling you the kind of wine (Pinot, Cabernet, etc.), it might tell you the name of the wine, such as the \u201cPrivate Reserve\u201d or \u201cMy Zin\u201d.\u00a0 If they care enough to name their wines, it might indicate that this wine is intended to be rather special.\u00a0 Even more so, some better wines come from single vineyards and they name that location.\u00a0 By itself, all this data may not mean much, but put together these are all indicators that the contents of the bottle may be something special.\u00a0 And it it\u2019s not there, that tells you something, too.\u00a0 (Maybe that\u2019s not the winery\u2019s best wine).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check one number in particular.<\/strong> Perhaps most important information on the label is the amount of alcohol in the wine.\u00a0 If you\u2019re driving from winery to winery to taste their products, this will help you calibrate your consumption.\u00a0 For a long time, 12.5% or 13% was the norm.\u00a0 Now anything less than 14% is considered light.\u00a0 Moreover, the alcohol level tells you a lot about wine itself.\u00a0 While there are some exceptions, any wine that contains more than 14.5% is likely to be \u201chot\u201d, tasting of alcohol rather than grapes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Some labels tell a story.<\/strong> It may or may not be an interesting story.\u00a0 Some tell the history of that particular wine.\u00a0 Those on the wines from Ridge winery, for example, give a detailed explanation of the growing condition, the soil, and everything but the name and address of the person who picked the grapes.\u00a0 And some just tell you whatever the Marketing department felt like saying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So why do we ask to see the label when we\u2019re wine tasting?\u00a0 Because it makes us more informed about what we\u2019re sipping and what we might be buying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Often when we are in a winery\u2019s tasting room, we ask the servers to show us the bottle.\u00a0 Of course, it\u2019s not the bottle we want to see; they\u2019re all pretty much the same.\u00a0 (Actually, that\u2019s not true.\u00a0 There are Bordeaux bottles with round shoulders and Burgundy bottles with sloping ones.)\u00a0 What we really want &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2012\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Read the Label<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2015,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}