Choosing White Wine Choosing Red Wines Choosing Sparkling Wines Choosing Fortified Wines Grape Varities Bottle Sizes And Shapes Wine Laws And Labels Buying Wine

Identifying the grape Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc Chardonnay Chenin Blanc Gamay Gewurztraminer Merlot Muscat Nebbiolo Pinot Noir Resling Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Syrah Tempranillo Zinfandel Other Major Varieties Light, Dry Fine, Dry Sweet

Labels do not always show which grape is used in a wine: until quite recently it was very much the exception. The New World vineyards of California led the way in widespread use of variety names, making American consumers familiar with Chardonnay as the name of a wine as well as of a vine variety. A drinker of red burgundy cannot tell from the label that the wine is made from Pinot Noir: it is assumed that a wine conforming to the appropriate appellation controlee will be Pinot Noir. Among the classic French wine areas, only in Alsace is varietal labeling the norm for appellation controlee wine. In other areas it is actually illegal.

The development of vins de pays has brought varietal labeling to France. Growers use variety names to signal that their wine uses an internationally known grape rather than the indigenous ones which the rules may also permit.