I’m certainly not a certified sommelier, but I like to think I know my way around a wine list. I’ve come a long way in recent years. Long before I could casually talk about chenin blanc, tempranillo or vermentino, 21-year-old me was cracking open an $8 bottle of pinot grigio at a house party — with my car keys, no less.
Those days are (thankfully) behind me, and I’ve grown to be the go-to wine selector for my friends and family. But even now, I still find myself struggling to choose the best wine when I’m standing in front of thousands of options at Total Wine (the largest independent retailer of fine wine in the US), or at my local grocery store.
The best tool I have to help with this tricky process is knowing how to decipher the label on every bottle of wine.
Wine labels can feel like a foreign language. Between terms like “terroir,” “Old World,” and “appellation,” figuring out what’s actually inside the bottle can be a challenge, especially when you’re staring down a wall of choices at the store. But with a little know-how, you can confidently pick a bottle based on what you actually want, not just a nice-looking label. Here’s what you need to know.
For more, here’s how to store every type of open wine so you can savor it, and the 5 most common wine mistakes you should avoid.
Start with the basics: What’s on a wine label?
Most wine bottles, especially those from the US and Europe, include some combination of the following:
- Producer or brand name: Who made the wine
- Wine type or variety: Usually the grape (Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, etc.) or a blend
- Region or appellation: Where the grapes were grown
- Vintage year: The year the grapes were harvested
- Alcohol content: Listed as a percentage
- Volume: Usually 750ml
- Additional descriptive terms: Such as “estate bottled,” “reserve,” or “old vines”
That’s a lot to remember all at once. Now let’s break those terms down.
Grape variety or wine type
This is your first clue about the wine’s taste. Remember that single-varietal wines are made mostly from one type of grape, such as pinot noir or sauvignon blanc, while blends combine several grape varieties and might have creative names like “Red Blend” or “Proprietary Red.”
Tip: If you know you like a type of wine — for instance, malbec — then it’s a good idea to look for other wines made with Malbec grapes. You can usually find this information on the front and center of the label.
White wine varietals chart
| White wines | Description | Body |
|---|---|---|
| Chardonnay | Pear, apple, oak, buttery, creamy | Medium to heavy |
| Chenin blanc | Peaches, fruity | Light |
| Pinot blanc | Pear, apple, floral | Medium |
| Pinot gris & pinot grigio | Crisp, pear, peach, apricot | Light |
| Riesling | Apple, lemon, floral, apricot, fruity | Light |
| Sauvignon blanc | Herbaceous, grassy, hay, citrus, grapefruity | Light to medium |
| Viognier | Floral, peach, apricot, pear, fruity | Medium |
Red wine varietals chart
| Red wine | Description | Body |
|---|---|---|
| Barbera | Berries, red fruit | Medium |
| Cabernet franc | Raspberry, cassis, herbaceous | Medium |
| Cabernet sauvignon | Blueberries, black currant, cassis, raspberries, oaky | Heavy |
| Malbec | Cherry, strawberry, plum | Medium |
| Merlot | Blackberry, plum, currant, chocolate, vanilla | Medium |
| Pinot noir | Strawberry, berries, cherry | Light to medium |
| Sangiovese | Cherry, fruity, spice | Light to medium |
| Syrah | Pepper, spice, blackberry, cinnamon | Medium to heavy |
| Zinfandel | Berries, jammy, cherry, earthy | Medium to heavy |
The tricky part, though, is that European wines often list the region instead of the grape variety. Here’s how to navigate reading the region and appellation of the wine.
Region and appellation
Wine labels will often tell you where the grapes were grown — and sometimes, what grapes were used.
- New World wines (US, Australia, South Africa) usually list the grape first, then the region.
- Old World wines (France, Italy, Spain) often list the region; you’ll need to know which grapes are typical of that area.
- Bordeaux: Usually cabernet sauvignon/merlot blends
- Chianti: Mostly sangiovese
- Chablis: Chardonnay from northern Burgundy
Appellation is a more specific term for a regulated wine-growing region, called AVA in the US (for instance, Napa Valley) or DOCG in Italy. These regions often have strict quality controls.
Look for these bonus terms on your wine label
What we’ve talked about so far doesn’t cover every word you may find on a wine label. If you’ve looked at one recently, you likely saw a lot of small-font text that went beyond just the grape variety or brand name.
While not all of this text will be relevant to your selection process, some labels include extra descriptors that hint at quality, age, or production method. Here’s what you’ll want to be on the lookout for:
- Estate bottled: The winery grew, harvested and bottled the wine all on-site — often a sign of higher quality.
- Reserve/reserva/riserva: Can mean longer aging or special selection, but the definition varies by country. In the US, it’s unregulated.
- Old vines (vieilles vignes, viñas viejas): Grapes from older vines, often producing more concentrated flavors.
- Barrel-aged/oaked: Indicates the wine spent time in oak barrels. You can expect richer, toastier notes.
- Unfiltered/natural: Wines that have not been filtered before bottling. Not removing natural particles will give these wines a different texture, depth and complexity than filtered wines. These may look cloudier or funkier, and may often have more texture.
Vintage year
This is the year the grapes were harvested, not when the wine was bottled.
- Younger vintages (one to three years old) are often fruitier and fresher.
- Older vintages can be more complex and mellow, depending on the wine.
If you’re buying inexpensive wines to drink now, the vintage isn’t super critical — just don’t go too old unless you know it ages well.
Alcohol by volume (ABV)
ABV refers to the percentage of alcohol (ethanol) in the beverage. This percentage is determined by dividing the volume of pure alcohol by the total volume of the beverage, then multiplying the figure by 100 to express the result as a percentage. Most wines are between 11% and 15% ABV. Here’s how to interpret it:
- 11–12.5%: Lighter-bodied, possibly sweeter (think riesling or moscato)
- 13–14.5%: Medium to full-bodied (most red wines fall here)
- 15%+: Bold, high-alcohol wines (such as zinfandel or amarone)
How to decode European wine labels
As I mentioned before, wines grown or made in the US often have different labels than those produced in Europe. If you’re like me and often find yourself in front of the wine shelves from Spain, Italy or France (my favorite wine is a tempranillo), then this section is for you.
European wine labels might feel intimidating at first, but here’s a cheat sheet to break it down:
- France: Focus on region (Burgundy, Rhône). Learn which grapes are typical of each.
- Italy: Watch for DOC/DOCG (geographic protection), region (Barolo = nebbiolo) and style.
- Spain: Labels include terms, such as “crianza,” “reserva” and “gran reserva” to indicate aging.
Don’t be fooled by fancy fonts
Just because a label looks elegant (and the wine may be pricey) doesn’t mean the wine inside is stellar — and a cartoon label doesn’t mean it’s low quality. Focus on the facts, rather than the presentation.
To help with this, you can explore our sommelier-backed tips for finding the best wine value.
Bottom line
Reading a wine label doesn’t require a sommelier certification. It just requires a little determination and decoding. But once you know what to look for, you can make better picks and discover what you actually enjoy.
Here’s how to spot great wine at the grocery store. And here are the best wine apps to get crowd-sourced opinions on what real customers think of a particular wine, tasting notes and more, so you don’t have to put all your trust in the producer. Vivino is the biggest, and in my opinion, the best, for this.
Read the full article here