Stricter Wine Label Regs Coming

[Roy Hersh]

This is for the USA. I am not against tightening up some of the nomenclature like "reserve" so that the use of that word on a lable has some real meaning, whether extended oak aging or some qualitative character, but in general, I am much more laissez-faire in my approach to the whole topic.

What say you?

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/23/407467 ... es-on.html

[Paul Fountain]

I'm all for regulation of words like 'reserve'. I don't know whether it is possible, but I'd love to see a standard definition around the world for some of these words so that Reserve means the same thing in US as it does in Chile, Australia or Europe. Other label requirements would be much more tricky to align.
The word 'Estate' was mentioned in the article with a requirement that the wine be cellared there. I'm not sure I agree with that. And what about bottling? smaller wineries aren't going to have a bottling line so they either have to get the mobile bottling line in, or send it somewhere to be bottled. Does bottling count as production? Does that mean their wines couldn't be labelled estate? That would be stupid.

[Glenn E.]

The word 'Estate' was mentioned in the article with a requirement that the wine be cellared there. I'm not sure I agree with that. And what about bottling? smaller wineries aren't going to have a bottling line so they either have to get the mobile bottling line in, or send it somewhere to be bottled. Does bottling count as production? Does that mean their wines couldn't be labelled estate? That would be stupid.

The only current regulation that I know of using the word "estate" is for "estate bottled" wines and so yes, that does require that they're grown, produced, and bottled at the estate. Further regulations would presumably differentiate between "estate grown," "estate produced," and "estate bottled" or whatever else they want to define.

The US wine industry has used deliberately misleading nomenclature for so long that of course there's going to be resistance, but it needs to change and the sooner the better.

[Eric Menchen]

What does reserve mean? I know what it means in the Port world, and I can transfer that definition to the US, but I really don't think it is something that can be regulated here. So a reserve is better than something else. But how does a Gallo reserve compare to a Ridge reserve? I think unless you know the winery, the word is meaningless across the the vast number of producers in the US. And with respect to Port, the last time I had Noval ruby, I thought it was better than a lot of other "reserve" Port. Would a reserve by any other name still taste as sweet?

[Peter W. Meek]

So far as I know, "Reserve" just means that the winery has reserved the wine, or kept it at the winery, for some period of time (for aging in the bottle) before releasing it for distribution and sale. This is the generally accepted meaning for Italian wines.

[Eric Menchen]

So far as I know, "Reserve" just means that the winery has reserved the wine, or kept it at the winery, for some period of time (for aging in the bottle) before releasing it for distribution and sale. This is the generally accepted meaning for Italian wines.

A different but equally valid explanation. Peter led me to googling, which led to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_wine

[Peter W. Meek]

So far as I know, "Reserve" just means that the winery has reserved the wine, or kept it at the winery, for some period of time (for aging in the bottle) before releasing it for distribution and sale. This is the generally accepted meaning for Italian wines.

A different but equally valid explanation. Peter led me to googling, which led to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_wine

A link in that article led me to Chaptalization, which is adding sugar to increase the ABV (not the sweetness) of wines. I was startled to discover how many countries and regions allow this practice.

[Eric Menchen]

A link in that article led me to Chaptalization, which is adding sugar to increase the ABV (not the sweetness) of wines. I was startled to discover how many countries and regions allow this practice.

Well, that's better than the previous practice of using lead acetate.