| Have you visited wineries and been able to | | | | fermented at least 75% of the finished wine |
| observe the activities that occur in the | | | | blend at the same site that is bottling the wine. |
| winemaking process? Anyone who has visited | | | | This may seem like a standard course of events |
| many wineries and seen first hand the many | | | | to many wine consumers. In other words, don't |
| steps that occur in the process has a pretty good | | | | wineries usually ferment all their own wine? Not |
| idea of the intricacies involved. They may not be | | | | necessarily anymore. The wine industry has |
| aware that those same intricate steps in the | | | | grown and evolved in many ways especially in the |
| winemaking process also translate into the label | | | | past 10 to 20 years. One of those changes has |
| that becomes affixed to the bottle holding the | | | | meant the growth of the bulk wine market, |
| finished product. | | | | where wineries buy and sell excess wine. To give |
| The label on a bottle of wine really does tell a | | | | you an idea of what this might look like in the real |
| story about the product inside. Consumers can | | | | world say a winery ferments 3,000 gallons of |
| know many details about a wine blend, the grapes | | | | wine at its primary winery site. They then decide |
| that made it, where it was made, what specific | | | | that they would like to bottle a total of 5,000 |
| vineyard it came from, and much more simply by | | | | gallons of the blend that wine will go into in order |
| reading and understanding the terminology used | | | | to meet their wine club volume. That means they |
| on wine labels. | | | | will need to purchase and blend in an additional |
| For example, a commonly seen (and required) | | | | 2,000 gallons that they would find on the bulk |
| item on wine labels is what is often called the | | | | wine market. In this particular example their |
| bottler's statement. This statement has several | | | | finished 5,000 gallon blend would then only have |
| variations that are used. One of the more | | | | 60% that was fermented by them, so they could |
| common versions reads: "Produced and bottled | | | | not use the term produced on the label. |
| by..." with the winery name and city location | | | | There are many other terms used in this bottler's |
| coming after that. The term "produced" tells | | | | statement. Each of them has its own specific |
| some very specific detail about where the wine | | | | defintion. The intricacies that live in even one or |
| blend was actually fermented, or made. In order | | | | two words on a wine label can provide the astute |
| for a winery to use that term it must have | | | | wine consumer with powerful wine shopping tools. |