Heather Kingston and EZ Rock Wine Features, Edmonton, Alberta
Reading a Wine Label
Wine labels should do the obvious – tell you what is in the bottle, but it can be tricky trying to decipher the information. There are Canadian laws about what has to be on a label. A label must declare the alcohol content of the wine, how many millilitres fluid content in the bottle and that wines contain sulphites. Sulphites are naturally occurring on grapes so even organic wines must declare this information. This chemical is an allergen for some people.
European labels do not usually list the name of the grapes on the labels. They will list the name of the estate and/or the name of the wine. An example would be Glorioso, the name of the wine and Rioja is the name of the region in Spain. The grape is Tempranillo, but not mentioned on the bottle. Some information gets complicated because there is an assumption by the wine estate that the purchaser knows how to dissect a label. The best suggestion I can give is to look up the wine estate on the internet and gather the details there. Alternatively, take a wine education class like International Sommelier Guild to really get a grip on wine knowledge.
The rest of the wine making world has caught on that we would like to know what is in the bottle. Australians were the first to put grape names on the front label. The consumer loved this because we could learn more about the wine we tasted. This has created a need for Europeans to rethink the long tradition of wine labelling and create more consumer friendly bottles. I am seeing a few more bottles with grape names and even wine making information on the back label. Happy label reading to all!
Find the wines. Go to www.albertaliquorguide.com ,click on ‘find a product’ and follow the instructions.
For more information go to www.alsaweb.ca or www.hlkwine.com
Heather Kingston is an International Sommelier Guild, Certified Sommelier working in Edmonton as an educator for the ISG and the Alberta Liquor Store Association.
