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The Labels and the (EU) Law

How to Read Italian Wine Labels

Though the majority of wine labels have a rectangular shape, some producers use more creative shapes and, in some cases, even "brake" the label into two separate parts.

In addition, the information printed on the wine label are of little help in understanding the kind of wine that one is drinking. This is especially true when the consumer is a newcomer, who might not be familiar with the definitions used in enology, or when the consumer is a non-Italian speaking subject who purchased Italian wine abroad.

In this article we want to provide a reading key to common information printed on an all Italian wine labels, hoping to be of help to the consumer categories defined above. However, we hope that the wine buff, who is familiar with international wine labels, will not be offended or annoyed by such elementary subject.

To illustrate our short glossary, we choose three labels that are different in shape as well as in the amount of information printed on them.

To give common reading keys, we numbered from 1 to 11 the data printed on the 1998 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva Bosco label, which is the one that includes the larger amount of information. On the other two labels we skipped the numbers for which no information were provided. Thus, the 2000 Korem Isola dei Nuraghi label from Argiolas is missing the numbers 3 and 11, while the 1998 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Conte di Bregonzo label is missing the numbers 6, 10 and 11.

1. Type of wine
2. Wine appellation
3. Additional denomination
4. Vintage year
5. Name of the wine
6. Color of the wine
7. Quantity in milliliters
8. Alcohol content by volume
9. Nation of origin (in our case it is obviously Italy)
10. Bottling company's data
11. Importer (this information is obviously missing from labels of Italian wines purchased in Italy).

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