Understanding Wine Labels: Part 2

On Tuesday I posted the first in a series about wine labels.  I focused on the front label for that entry, and today I'll focus on the back label.

To start though, not all wineries include a back label.  If they have included all the legally required information on the front label, then they might choose to forego the expense of a second label on the bottle.  

But the back label gives a winery a way to include whatever legal information that wouldn't fit on the front, plus extra room to give you a description of the winery and/or the wine.  Generally, the back label is where you'll want to look for a more in-depth understanding of the wine in the bottle.

Here's an example of Wenwood's back label, followed by the Peaceful Bend's back label:

You can see on that both labels have the winery's name and the wine name on the back label.  Plus, we both added a description of the wine and information about our respective wineries.  Laura even has a convenient map to Wenwood on her back label.  This is all information that isn't legally required, but we hope helps you as you decide which bottle of wine to purchase.

Wineries are legally required to have the following information somewhere on our labels:

• 'produced & bottled by...' statement, 
• 'contains sulfites' statement, 
• alcohol content, 
• bottle size, 
• and the surgeon general's warning. 

While all of this information is required by federal law, the exact placement isn't dictated to us.  So you might see much of that information on the front or the back. Speaking of legal info....currently we are not required to have nutritional information available on our labels, but that might change in the future.

And jumping back to non-required information - you might also find a bar code and/or a QR code on the back label.  The barcode is pretty much a requirement for wines that are sold in major retailers and grocery stores these days.  The QR code is nice for customers with smartphones, as you can go directly to the winery website to find out more information about the wine before you purchase it.

Of course most wineries will be sure to include their website addresses on the back label too, even if they already have a QR code.  You might also find other bits and pieces of information that the winery feels you might like to know.....did anyone notice who the artist was for Wenwood's Kran Rose?  

That's right - Laura herself!  She is one multi-talented lady.

I hope today's post helped you navagate the back label on a wine.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Trills,

Katie