What's in a Name: The California Label

When you see the words "Estate Bottled" or Estate Grown" on a bottle of wine, you can expect a bit more from it. Originally "Estate Bottled" meant the producer owned both the winery and the vineyard and everything was done in-house. Nowadays if a producer has a long-term, established contract with a winegrower, the wine can also be called "Estate Bottled." "Estate Grown" is a little broader; the vineyard owner may use outside winemaking facilities for aging and/or bottling the wines. In any case the vineyard and winery must both be located within the appellation stated on the bottle. The quality of a wine depends on the quality of the grapes, and the extra control and attention behind an "Estate" wine means the winery can maintain high standards throughout the process.

Many terms that appear on wine labels, have legally-defined meanings, and there's been some arguments about that lately. Fred Franzia - the guy behind the super-cheap "Two-Buck Chuck" wines - is stirring things up again.. He owns a number of other brands, and a few of them - Napa Ridge and Rutherford Vintners, to name two - have raised the hackles of his industry peers. A California law states that if "Napa" appears on the label - in the name or elsewhere - 75% of the grapes that go into the wine must be Napa-grown. An older federal law is very similar, except for a "grandfather clause:" brands containing the Napa name already in existence could continue to do so, regardless of where their grapes came from. Franzia bought several old, unused brand names that fit that description, apparently intending to trade on the cachet of the Napa name without having to buy the more expensive (and, one must suppose, better) Napa grapes.

The legal battle between Franzia and the Napa Valley Vintners Association recently peaked - the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving the California Court's ruling standing. So while Franzia still has a few more tricks up his sleeve, it does seem like a losing battle: if it says Napa, it must come (mostly) from Napa Valley.

So what does a California wine label tell you? Here's a few of the things you'll see:

The Winery: both name and address of the producer must appear somewhere on the label

Grape Variety: 75% of the grapes must be of the stated variety - enough to dominate the wine's character.

Appellation: For county appellations such as Sonoma or Napa, 75% of the grapes must have been grown in that area; for sub-appellations like "Russian River Valley" that rises to 85%.

Alcoholic Strength: For wines of less than 14% alcohol a 1.5% margin of error is allowed; that margin shrinks to 1% for stronger wines, which are also taxed at a higher rate.

Health and "Contains Sulfites" warnings: required by law. Wine naturally contains sulfites, even if none are added during the winemaking process. For most people the level of sulfites in a modern are not significant.

Volume: the amount of wine in the bottle must be stated.

Those are "must haves;" other information, of course, may appear. "Reserve," for example: it has no legal meaning in the U.S., so what it means to an individual producer can be hard to say - for some, it reads as "costs more," and not much else.

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