Judging a Wine (Or Winery) by its Label

Judging a Wine (Or Winery) by its Label

Julie Haase

In 2010, the United States became the world’s largest wine market, with over 767 million gallons of wine consumed by Americans.  With wine prices ranging from just a couple dollars a bottle to upwards of tens of thousands of dollars per bottle, wine is an alcoholic beverage enjoyed by people across all classes. When a buyer is trying to decide on a bottle to purchase, the wine’s label will often be the deciding factor between multiple options; many times, a wine’s label is the only resource a consumer has in deciding which wine to buy. Assumptions about the quality of a wine are often made from the information provided on wine labels.  In this paper, I intend to explore what winemakers may be attempting to indicate about themselves, and also, what they signal to consumers through the labels placed on their wine bottles.  Federal and state laws regulate what information must be found on a wine label, but winemakers often add extra information to their bottles; this may include tasting notes, geographical growing conditions, or accolades for the wine, or may take the form of pictures, colors, or designs.  I will discuss other literature written about the jargon of wine-speak, wine labels, and consumer buying habits.  Then, I will attempt to dissect a group of randomly selected labels across all price ranges to see if I can come to any conclusions about the wine in the bottle and the winery itself.