StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions
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StateWays | www.stateways.com | July/August 2017 22 Name? Name? WHAT'S IN A Do single-vineyard, estate-grown and other designations signify quality? W hat's in a wine label? Loads of information. There's a brand name or producer, of course, and a geographic description of origin. A year, if the wine is vintage-dated, and perhaps the name of a grape. And the percentage of alcohol by volume – often in type so small that mere mortals can barely read it. Then there are the optional terms, like "estate bottled" or the name of a specifi c vineyard. These give consum- ers additional information about what's in the bottle, but do those buyers even understand or care? First, some defi nitions. "Estate bot- tled," according to federal regulations, means that the winery grew all the grapes on land it owns or controls and that the win- ery crushed, fermented, aged and bottled the wine in a contin- uous process on its premises. Both the winery and the vineyard must be in the viticultural area (such as "Napa Valley") stated on the label. (The term "estate grown" has the same defi nition, according to a government spokesman). When a label includes the name of a vineyard, federal reg- ulations require that at least 95 percent of the grapes used be grown in the named vineyard. Such wines are often called "sin- gle vineyard" or "vineyard designate" wines. Winery representatives – owners, winemakers, market- ing professionals – don't necessarily agree on how well un- derstood the terms are, but they use them for a variety of reasons. And some research indicates that the presence of "estate bottled" on a label is important to members of the trade who sell wine. Christian Miller of Full Glass Research said members of the trade – retailers, on-premise and wholesalers – were asked in a Wine Opinions survey what factors were important in choos- ing and selling a $20-$40 Cabernet Sauvignon. "The factors fell into three rough tiers," he says; an estate-bottled designation was in the second most important tier. The designation, he added, "clearly set the wine apart from brands" because an es- tate-bottled wine is more limited. by LAURIE DANIEL