Learn
about wine:
How
to understand wine labels
 I thought it might be useful to explain
what the label can tell you about
the wine you are about to drink. Labelling laws are
complicated and can be explained in more detail later
but I will start with French wines.
French
wine is controlled by two organisations:
- Institut
National des Appellations d'Origine (IANO), which
controls the hierarchy of French quality wines.
- Service
de Repression des Fraudes, which is responsible for
seeing that the laws on wine are carried out. From
the moment that the grapes are picked they are subject
to documentation until they are purchased.
The
wine laws of France have now been brought under the
European Community's regime and have, in fact, provided
much of the framework for that regime.
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These
are the terms you might expect to see on the labels
of French wines, which describe the quality of the wine:
QWPSR:
Quality Wine Produced in a Specific Region
France
has two grades of QWPSR:
- Appellation
Contrôlée
- Vin
Délimité de Qualité Supérieure
and
two of table wine:
Quality
Wine
AC
or AOC:
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
This
is the highest level that French wine can attain. The
requirements vary from region to region but these things
will always feature:
- Areas
of production
- Grape
varieties allowed
- Viticultural
practices (planting distances, pruning methods etc.)
- Maximum
permitted yield per hectare
- Vinification
methods (wine production) including ageing
- The
minimum alcoholic degree in the wine that must be
achieved without must-enrichment
Some
regions have the right to the additional qualification
superiéur, e.g. Bordeaux Supérieur, Mâcon
Supérieur. That means that these wines have a
slightly higher alcohol amount than the normal basic
appellation.
VDQS:
Vins Délimités de Qualité Supérieure
This
is in between table wine and AC wine and this category
is dying as many wines are progressing to the higher
level (e.g. Minervois and Corbières) but some
wines do stay at this level (e.g. Bugey). The laws are
roughly the same as for AC but these days are often
less stringent on yields or grape varieties.
Table
Wines
Vin
de Pays
There
are 141 types of vin de pays all over France and represent
about 20% of total production. It was brought in mainly
to help give added value to certain Vins de Table and
also to help reduce the quantity of bulk wine produced
in areas such as the Midi, which were known for high
yield and low quality.
Area
of production can be regional (e.g. Vin de Pays d'Oc
which covers four départments or Vin de Pays
de'Aude which is one départment). It can even
be zonal within a départment.
Grape
varieties:
This is usually much broader than for a local AC or
VDQS.
Yields:
Maximum yields being normally 90 hl/ha.
Analytical
standards:
Minimum strength of 9% in the north and 10% in the south
and other levels of sulphur and volatile acidity levels.
Vins
de Table
Accounts
for 30% of French wine. It can be produced anywhere
in the country with no restrictions on grape variety,
but the wine must not be chaptalised (must-enrichment,
addition of sugar to increase the alcohol level) No
maximum yield is stipulated, but a proportion of wine
over 100hl/ha must be sent for distillation and the
greater the over-production, the lower the price paid
per hectolitre for distilling wine.
The
regulations have been changed to encourage growers to
produce lower yields of better quality wines.
Some
French labelling terms
| Blanc |
: |
white |
| Brut |
: |
dry
(usually sparkling wine) |
| Cave |
: |
cellar
(often underground) or winemaking establishment |
| Cave
Co-operative |
: |
winemaker's
co-operative |
| Cépage |
: |
grape
variety |
| Chai |
: |
warehouse
for storing wine, usually in barrels, above ground |
| Châteaux
estate |
: |
It
may or may not have a manor house |
| Clos |
: |
walled
vineyard (walls might have been lost in time) |
| Côte |
: |
hillside |
| Coteaux |
: |
hillsides |
| Cru |
: |
growth,
usually high quality vineyard or district |
| Cru
Classé |
: |
classified
vineyard, usually in Bordeaux |
| Cuve |
: |
vat
or tank |
| Cuvée |
: |
blend
(has a special meaning in champagne) |
| Demi-sec |
: |
medium
dry |
| Départment |
: |
French
political region, a bit like an English county |
| Domaine |
: |
estate |
| Doux |
: |
sweet |
| Eau-de-vie |
: |
spirit |
| Grand
vin de ... |
: |
great
wine of, but just a marketing term |
| Manipulant |
: |
grape
grower who also makes wines from those grapes,
especially champagne |
| Mis
en bouteille |
: |
bottled |
| Mis
en bouteille au château |
: |
château
bottled |
| Raisin |
: |
grape |
| Rouge |
: |
red |
| Sec |
: |
dry |
| Supérieur |
: |
indicated
extra 0.5% or 1% volume |
| Vignoble |
: |
vineyard |
| Vin |
: |
wine |
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