Labelling of wine has long been a contentious issue, and has certainly been discussed at length on this site (see Labelling for consumer not producer , Have Europe’s wine labels changed? ,...

Laithwaites , the best-known face of the world's dominant mail-order wine merchant – or direct-sales specialist, as I should perhaps call them – held their second big wine tasting for the UK...

I was having dinner at a restaurant in Florence with Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti of the admirable Chianti Classico estate Castello di Ama. One of their favourite establishments, Oro...

A word of warning, this article contains no reference to fresh acidity, fine-grained tannins or irresistible aromas but it's quite long - and arguably the most interesting and useful comments are...

20 Feb 2011 - French customs and excise have abandoned the regulation that bottles destined for export must have a different capsule from those used on the domestic market, provided certain...

27 Sep - See response from LCBO below. Can a saga gather steam? I'm not sure, but I am sure that I'm delighted that the issue highlighted several times on this site, most recently in...

From the 2008 vintage, the words Cru Bourgeois will be back on the label of wines from the Médoc. The 260 members of the Alliance des Crus Bourgeois have voted by a three-quarters majority in...

From August 2009, wines previously labelled AOC or DO (etc) could be labelled PDO and those previously labelled VdP or IGT (etc) could be labelled PGI. The recent EU reform...

Bruce Jack of Flagstone, and now, as reported here , Constellation’s man in South Africa busy upgrading the Kumala brand, was in London last week. As Julia mentions in Cape crusaders and...

German labels are some of the world's most confusing. Quite apart from the usual advice that producer is crucial and vintage year can affect quality, look for 1 quality level, 2 grape variety, 3...

1. Look for vintage year. If there is none, the champagne is non vintage (NV) and usually a blend of two or more vintages. 2. Blanc de Blancs or Chardonnay on the label indicates that only...

AC , appellation contrôlée,  France's principal and much-imitated quality designation system, devised to protect producers from imitators and to guarantee authenticity to consumers....

Ausbruch , traditional sweet wine speciality of Rust, usually deep-coloured and with more than a hint of Tokay character. Auslese , late picked, lightly sweet wines....

bianco , white. cantina means literally ‘cellar’ or ‘winery’. A Cantina Sociale is a co-operative winery. Classico , usually the original heartland of a...

Understanding South African labels Estate wine , this may appear only on wines bottled on the farm on which all the grapes were grown and vinified. Méthode Cap Classique ,...