WineLife365

The next time you purchase a bottle of California wine, take a closer look at the front and back labels.  Besides eye-popping artwork, tasting notes, and love stories, you’re also likely to see one of these three wine terms on them as well:

Vinted & Bottled By

If a bottle lists the term “Vinted & Bottled By” on either the front or back label, this indicates that a minimum of 10% of the wine contained inside that bottle was fermented at the winery whose name shows up on the bottle.  Alternatively, the label may also read, “Made and Bottled By”, which has the same meaning.

Produced & Bottled By

This term indicates that the winery, whose name is on the label, was responsible for crushing, fermenting and bottling a minimum of 75% of the wine inside the bottle.  However, it does not mean that the winery actually grew the grapes used to make the wine.

Estate Bottled

This is the formal way of saying that 100% of the wine that you’re drinking came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by that particular winery, located in the specified viticultural area named.  It is the formal way of saying that the winery listed on the front label was responsible for crushing, fermenting the grapes, any wine-making processes and bottling the wine in one continuous operation.  Some labels may also say, “Grown, Produced and Bottled By”, which means the same thing as “Estate Bottled”.

California Wine Laws require all California wine labels to specify one of these three designations. However, from a consumer standpoint, this label disclosure requirement should not be used as the Holy Grail for determining whether an “Estate Bottled” wine is superior to the other two designations or vice versa; it’s just for legal purposes.

Check it out, the next time you’re shopping for California wines.