Labeling Yourself As A Label Buyer?

Face it, our brains are wired to look at attractive faces, cute animals, and stunning views. Marketing professionals have known this fact for ages and have played us for fools countless times. Don't let yourself fall into the trap of buying wine based on the label or fancy bottle! As in relationships, look past the trappings and get down to the substance of what's inside.

Here are some tips to help you:

1. Have an idea what you are searching for -- red or white isn't enough to go on.

2. If a gift, ask the wine merchant if they know what wines your friends like.

3. Read the back label! Many wines now have brief descriptions of the juice that lies within the bottle. There are also some that even have pairing suggestions.

4. The laws of the country of origin will dictate what information must appear on the label. Look for vintage information. If the year of harvesting is not listed, then it is a blend of more than one year. That doesn't signal a "cheap wine" necessarily -- champagne is typically listed as "NV" or non-vintage to indicate that the best of a couple of years' harvests have been used. Other wines will show no information as to year or NV.

5. What grape(s)? A common misconception is that blends are bad. Au contraire! Some of the world's best wines are blends of a few or many grapes. This one below is a great example:

This is a beautiful "baby" Chateauneuf du Pape! A customer of mine described the label as looking like it was made on MS Word, yet it is a perfect example of a somewhat cheesy label with a crazy good wine behind it. 

6. The sad truth is that a label is no indicator of quality. The cute, the absurd, the profane, the comical have all been used to bite the buyer's wallet. Use common sense and get all the info you can. Ask the merchant, ask your friends, Google it!

 

This must be what you turn to after tiring of Barefoot Cellars.