How to read a wine label

Wine labels are required by law to state:

• name and address of the winemaker or supplier
• volume of wine
• alcohol content
• number of standard drinks.

Unlike food, wine is also required to state the country of origin. If the grapes come from two countries, both must be listed.

If two or more grapes are listed, they must be listed in descending order. If there's more merlot than shiraz in a blend, it must be called "merlot shiraz" rather than the other way around.

Additives and preservatives
You might be surprised to read on your bottle that it "may contain" fish, milk, or egg products. These are used in small quantities to prevent wine going cloudy or to remove bitterness or astringency. They're mostly filtered out before wine is sold but there's always a chance tiny residual amounts will remain. The Food Standards Code requires these additives to be declared on all wine labels, so that people with allergies are forewarned.

And if there's more than 10mg/kg of sulphur dioxide (a preservative) then that must be declared too.

The 85 percent rule

From the 2007 vintage onwards, an "85 percent rule" came into force. This covers claims about grape variety, vintage, and the area where the grapes are grown.

For example, a wine whose label claims it's a single grape variety, single vintage, or from a single area must contain at least 85 percent of that variety, vintage or area. And if a label says the wine is "2007", then at least 85 percent of that wine must be from the 2007 vintage.

Previously there had been only a 75 percent requirement. That means a wine claiming a 2006 vintage only needs to be 75 percent from that year, and a chardonnay from 2006 or earlier only has to have 75 percent chardonnay grapes.

What else is on the label?

There's a lot of other information on the label that can help you be a wine buff.

Vintage

This is the year the grapes were harvested. There may be a certain percentage of grapes from another year, though - see "The 85 percent rule" just above.

Non-vintage

NV wines are blends from more than one year. If there's no date on the label you can be pretty sure it's NV. (Why do winemakers do this? Blending wines from different years allows them to produce consistent wines from one year to the next.)

Medals

You've seen the little gold and silver labels displaying wine-show awards. But the claim must be true for the wine in that particular bottle - and the wine mustn't be different from what was submitted to the show. A medal, however, doesn't mean a wine is necessarily better than a wine without a medal: some winemakers choose not to enter shows and competitions.

The back label

This typically gives information about the winery, vineyard, and how the wine tastes. It may also give tips for food matching. Sometimes it'll tell you whether the wine's for "drinking now" or for "cellaring" - and how long you should cellar it for.