Guide: How to Choose Wine by Reading the Label

Knowing how to read a wine label

Far from wanting to write a treatise on wine legislation, the purpose of this article is to give our winelovers some advice when they find themselves in front of a supermarket shelf and can't decide which wine to buy.
It is worth remembering that the purpose of the label is to present to the consumer the wine contained in the bottle; therefore, without repeating the wine classifications, a topic already impeccably covered by our colleague Endris, I would like to focus on a very important player in the entire wine supply chain: the bottler.
This figure is decisive because it can affect the quality of the wine and the final price.
The law requires that all bottled wines, from Vino da Tavola to DOCG wine, must mandatorily indicate on the label the name or company name of the bottler, their registered office and code number; therefore, we may find these terms printed on the label or on the back label:

Bottled at the Source or bottled by the grower.

Bottled in the production area.

Bottled outside the region or even outside the country.

You can clearly see that this small notation can make a difference when buying a wine.
You may find yourself looking at a bottle of Chianti Docg bottled in Veneto or even abroad, meaning bulk wine that leaves Tuscany in authorized batches.
The same applies to Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Doc, to Cirò Calabrese Doc and to the Apulian Primitivo di Manduria Doc.
Not to worry – all perfectly legal, thanks to the most recent EU regulations that have allowed the extension across all of Europe of the packaging and bottling of certain products protected by Doc and Dop designations.
It is the opinion of this writer that buying a wine bottled by the grower themselves is, for the consumer, a favorable factor in choosing, and not just for reasons of "romance".

The must will be produced, within a few hours of harvest, in the same place where the grapes ripened, preserving their aromas and quality.
The same cannot be said of wines bottled in facilities in the same region but hundreds of kilometers from the vineyards – wines subjected to the stress of long journeys in the sun and storage conditions not always up to legal standards.

I would avoid, finally, buying Chianti Docg, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Doc or other wines bottled outside their production region or even abroad.
The prohibition on bottling outside the region – to prevent the potential alteration of the product – is delegated to the production specifications of each wine.
Regardless of price or classifications, I would recommend prioritizing, when choosing a wine on a supermarket shelf or in a wine shop, a wine bottled by the grower themselves or a Cantina Sociale – a guarantee of a sound wine at a fair price.