Sommelier Explains Wine Label Red Flags

I mean, the biggest deal breaker

with this wine is that

it just says California appellation, right?

I know nothing about the producer.

That's a big, huge red flag, for me,

it should be for you,

but all of that together spells doom and gloom to me.

Tryna rope me in to talking a whole bunch of [beep],

you know I'm not negative, I don't wanna be,

see, look at this.

[midtempo music]

So today we have six wines here in front of us

and I'm gonna try to see if the labels hold up

to the actual wine inside of the bottles.

And then we're going to taste the wines

and see how close I got.

So the goal of today is to teach you how to read the label

so you know more about the wine

that's actually inside the bottle.

You know, the really confusing part about wine

is that you actually have to know something about wine

to actually kind of decipher

and weed your way through this whole kind of crazy system.

So I've divided the wines into a couple of categories.

We have what we're calling the New World,

and then we have Old World,

and then we kinda sorta have like,

this hybrid thing going on here.

New World labels tend to lead with grape varietals

so it'll tell you which grape

that you're actually consuming,

or what's actually in the bottle.

When we generally talk about New World wines,

those are wines that are fruit forward,

they tend to grow from warmer places.

So think of South America, America, Australia,

those types of places.

And when we talk about Old World,

we're talking about Europe,

traditionally they actually talk about

the grape from a place.

And then this kind of hybrid kind of has both,

it tells you the grape, and it also is named after a place.

So we're going to take a look at some of the labels now

but we're going to start with the appellation and region.

[relaxed jazz music]

So first up we have the Gulp Hablo,

it's a red wine from Spain, Garnacha.

It looks bigger than most bottles,

but looking at the label, it doesn't really tell me much.

It's not giving in any way,

just has the name and some artwork.

The first thing is like, where is it from?

But as far as region, I know that we're in Spain.

It's a trend that I'm starting to see now

where a lot of wines

don't have much information on the front.

The key is that they want you to pick it up,

they want you to look at it

so you're going to turn it around

and find out more about it.

Ultimately, where the grapes are picked and harvested

matter the most.

So next step, this is the Vinchingo,

this is called The Violet Swell.

This is from the Redwood Valley in California.

Being more specific about where the grapes come from

you get more control over what's happening with the grapes.

So this wine is from California,

but it's also from the Redwood valley.

And so, you know that at least 85% of the grapes

are coming from that particular valley.

Next up is Tussock Jumper.

When I look at the region and it just says USA

and then wine of California on the back,

it doesn't give me great hope

that this wine would be of great quality,

which we talked about, location, location, location.

If it had a vineyard, if it had a region,

I would think that it would be better quality.

It might do the job, but you know,

I'm not real sure if it's something

that I would pick up off the shelf and want to purchase.

But we don't know anything about it

because the true taste is what's inside the bottle.

So next up is an Old World wine,

I'm sure that you can tell just by looking at it.

This is a Dolcetto D'Alba.

So the region is Alba, it's Dolcetto from Alba

in the Piedmont region of Italy.

So right there automatically we know

exactly where we are at.

Here you see the name of the place.

Underneath, this is the DOC,

which is the governing body

that controls this particular growing region.

It's saying that this name needs to be protected

and these are the rules of what you can be grown there,

how long they can be aged,

and the style of which the wine was made.

You see here there's a little DOC ribbon here,

just to confirm and let everybody know

that this is coming from Alba.

So next up, if you haven't guessed,

another example of an Old World wine here,

this is le Sang de Cailloux,

and this is from the Rhone region of France

and an appellation called Vacqueyras.

In France the governing body is called

[speaks in a foreign language],

so we shorten that to AOC.

So you'll see Vacqueyras on the label here.

So the tricky part is, is that it tells you the region

but it doesn't tell you anything about the grapes.

So you have to know something about that particular region

to understand what grapes are being used.

All of this information is readily available,

you know, everybody has a smartphone in their pocket.

I feel like if you're in a store,

if they're not busy and someone can help you,

I'm sure that they would much rather you talk to them.

The idea is, is that they're not an expert in your taste,

they're just a tour guide.

They know the inventory better,

they know the wine list better than you do,

that's their job.

So really use them to make an educated decision.

All right, so next up,

we kind of have our hybrid bottle here,

so Old World meets New World, in a sense.

When I look at it, the front label here,

you see something that says AOG,

and so not sure what that means.

After that it says Zenata,

so I would assume that that's the particular region

that the wine is from.

I'd have to confirm that,

but from looking at the front label

I can tell that the wine is actually from Morocco.

It is kind of surprising that you're like,

oh wow, this is from Morocco,

but I'm sure they have a lush history of making wine there.

But this would maybe be something

that I would be intrigued in tasting, right?

Just for the edification of like, just like,

what are wines from that area tastes like.

Now we're going to talk about the name of the wine

and the grape varietal.

The name of this wine is Violet Swell.

The grape varietal here is Carignan.

This is from California.

This is what we would call a fantasy name.

Now that I know what the grape varietal is,

which is Carignan, which generally you think of

crushed violets and those kinds of things,

it's very aromatic and floral.

I would guess that's the reason

why they would use this particular name for this wine.

Marketing sometimes kind of falls into this area where

if you're a wine maker, you're an artisan, right?

You're pure.

And the idea that marketing is a bad word

and that's not it.

A lot of times for wine makers,

it helps try to connect what they were feeling

to the wine to the consumer.

So it could be marketing.

But I think for a lot of, a lot of times,

it just kind of helps tells the story.

So here, no fantasy name or anything like that.

There's not much to go on,

it just gives you the grape varietal.

It just says Merlot,

so that gives you an indication

of kind of what it would taste like,

soft tannins, those kinds of things.

But other than that,

I don't really have anything else to go off of

than a bear wearing a sweater,

I'm not real sure what that means, right?

I mean, he has fur, why is he wearing a sweater?

I don't know.

Judging from the front label, it's labeled USA,

it just says Merlot.

Already, I'm thinking that this wine is under $10,

under $12, for sure. [cash register ringing]

So now this is example of Old World wine here,

it's called Dolcetto D'Alba.

What's interesting,

if you're kind of looking around for the grape varietal,

it's not listed prominently,

but it actually kinda is, right?

Dolcetto is the name of the grape

and that's listed here on the front.

You wouldn't be able to use this name,

Dolcetto D'Alba, if it wasn't sanctioned by the DOC,

which is listed here, the appellation.

So those two kinda go hand in hand.

If you look at the back of the label it just says red wine.

The governing body could say

that it's only 100% Dolcetto,

legally different appellations set

how much of the grape varietal needs to be on it

before you can put it on the front.

This wine is called Vacqueyras, right,

so it's named after the region.

So based on the name, you know, you understand

you have to know something about that particular region,

but generally you're looking at Syrah,

Grenache, Mourvedre, Sancerre, those are popular grapes

that are from in that particular area

but it can be any combination of those.

All of this is intimidating.

Like, it's not your job.

Like how, how are you supposed to know?

Are you like, it seems like,

in order to appreciate wine,

like you have to study about it.

And that is kind of the tricky part.

In order to enjoy great wine

you don't really need to know much about it

or where it comes from.

And I don't think that you have to be an expert in wine

to fulfill that desire.

So the name of this wine is Syrocco.

it does say Syrah on the front.

So here I'm trying to figure out

what's exactly inside of the bottle.

So I'm thinking Syrah, but then I think about Morocco

and I don't know much about Morocco.

It's the northern coast of Africa.

So I do know the climate, it is slightly warm

where a grape like Syrah thrives.

From those two things

I'm really intrigued to taste the wine.

In general, knowing the name of the wine,

it's good to know,

but it doesn't really give you any real insight.

Knowing what the grape varietal is,

gets you closer to what's actually inside the bottle.

So next up, we're going to talk vintages.

It's important that the wine have a vintage,

that it'd be vintage dated.

And that's an indication to let you know

that all of these particular grapes

were harvested in this particular year

Something that you're gonna drink every day,

you know, vintage doesn't really matter as far as longevity.

But vintage really plays more in a role overall

if you're talking about, you know, more expensive wines,

trophy wines, wines that you want to lay down.

I think as you start to get more and more into wine

vintage will start to matter more to you.

But I think at the beginning, you know,

you just want to make sure that it has a vintage on it

because that is a sign of quality.

But vintage plays an important role, but less of a role,

in my opinion, when you're first getting into wine.

We have all the wines here.

We have vintages on all of them.

I think that's more important

than me going through each particular wine

and saying how the vintage affected the wine.

But they all have vintages,

which means it's a big plus.

All right, so now we're going to actually talk about

the artwork, the label, the design.

Is it really important?

Some people say yes, some people say no,

but I think 90% of people buy wine

just based on what the artwork looks like and the label.

So when I look at a label like this,

it doesn't really tell me much about the wine

and I think that's kind of the purpose.

It's art, for all intents and purposes, right?

Artist is subjective.

But to me, what it says in general, overall,

just seems like they don't take themselves serious.

I would probably be more likely to buy it

because it seems light and fun.

If I had to rate mustaches, I like mine better.

A little short and sweet here, there you go.

So all the labels have to be submitted to the government.

And what's interesting is that, to the government,

the back label is actually the front label.

And so the front could really be anything, you know,

as long as there's, you know,

it's not obscene or anything like that,

they generally pass it.

So here we have the Vinchingo, it's kind of a cool label.

It's bright, it's got some cool,

like, minimalist design elements going on here

and that sense of like how the cartoons are drawn.

I'm drawn to the wine because of the color.

Even when you talk about marketing, it's in a clear glass

so you can kind of marvel and look at the color.

There's no foil here either.

Generally you'll see foil on a lot of the other labels.

I think sometimes that's a marketing decision.

I mean, you save some money or that kind of thing,

but you actually get to, you know,

take a look at the cork artwork here,

which is kind of cool

and kind of a message in a bottle.

All of those things kind of add up

to different elements to it.

To me, this is all about fun and having a great time.

All right, we're back to Tussock Jumper.

It's kind of cool, but it just kind of follows

that whole thing that we talked about,

put a critter on the bottle and it sells.

Generally speaking, if, you know,

if it was a higher price point, then maybe,

but other than that kind of a cool illustration,

but doesn't do anything else for me.

It's a bear.

Does he drink wine?

I'm not real sure,

but I don't feel moved by this wine to want to buy it.

Keeping at it, this is Old World, kind of the same thing.

How do you know you're there?

Script, lots of information.

There's generally some type of etching

of the vineyard slash chateau and it looks very regal.

So also what's interesting too

on a lot of these wines that are regional,

they have a what's a regional bottle.

So this is from Vacqueyras, this is the crest here

and it's embossed on the particular bottle.

So thinking about overall artwork,

it doesn't really tell you anything about the wine.

Maybe it helps you tell the story,

but it doesn't really do anything other than that.

However, I know it's easiest for people to shop by label,

definitely when they feel like there's a connection,

but that's kind of like shopping in a minefield.

All right, so next up, we're gonna talk about

two different categories here.

We're gonna talk about producer name

and we're also gonna talk about the importer.

And these are the people who actually select the wines,

have the relationship.

And they're like kind of the middleman.

They're bringing the wines from,

in this instance from Spain into United States,

they build a portfolio.

So if they have intimate relationships

with this particular producer

and it's important, right?

Because you know, sometimes you might look at a wine

and you don't know anything about it.

Maybe it's new, you never heard of it before.

But if you start to take note of the importer,

you know that signifies some type of quality and standards

that you should be trustworthy with.

So if you hadn't had this wine before,

but you've had other wines that have T.Edwards,

if you look on the back, it has T on it,

then you should be able to take some comfort in that.

So this is a domestic wine.

There's no importer.

So there's nothing to look for in the back

or anything like that.

This is made here in the United States and sold here.

So now we're, these are Old World examples.

Giacomo Fenocchio is the name of the producer.

This is an Italian wine

so it's imported here in the United States.

So if you're looking at the back here, imported by Skurnik.

I talked to people all the time,

they're like, wow, you know, like,

when I taste wines from like,

Italy or France or something like that,

it just tastes so much better

and they're inexpensive.

And it's like, yeah, there's no inherit land costs.

You know, that land has been in those people's families

for over a hundred years

so they don't have to pay for the land anymore.

Versus if you go to someplace like Napa,

it's like a million dollars an acre, right?

Somebody's paying for that and that's the consumer.

Another Old World example,

Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux.

So blood of the stones, kind of says it all.

And then if you look on the back

one of the famous importers, probably in the world,

a guy by the name of Kermit Lynch.

Kermit has such a following that

I think there's some wine stores

that their whole model is they only buy his wines

and they only sell his wines in their store.

I think that's how much they believe and respect,

you know, Kermit's palette.

And so generally speaking, you know,

if you'd like those styles of wine

you can't go wrong with shopping Kermit wines.

So next up, we're going to talk about

what we call the X-factor.

And these are just kind of extra things on the label

that can lend more information

and/or be un-useful or just of interest in any way.

So here, we're looking at the bottle of wine.

In the back there's a lot of stickers here,

a lot of certifications.

So USDA organic, this wine is certified vegan,

so you know that this wine is not fined with egg whites,

which traditionally a lot of wines are.

You have the Demeter, she's a sign of biodynamic.

You have to know about what each of these stickers means

and the organization means,

but they can tell you a lot about what's in the bottle.

Being organic, biodynamic, and all those things

were just kind of a way of life for a lot of wineries,

it wasn't used as a marketing term.

And I would have to say in the last 20 years,

and with a lot of these organizations coming up

with their own stamps of approval,

now you starting to find them on a bottle.

Rightfully so, because, you know,

these are the things that matter to people.

All right, so next up is the Tussock Jumper.

There's tons of crazy stuff on the back,

kind of overcrowded and weird in a way.

You know, you have a thermometer here, a temperature gauge,

maybe on how to serve it.

It's telling you what you can pair things with.

And so, you know, it's barbecue, salads, and pizza.

Just seems overcrowded and like, a whole bunch of stuff

and I'm confused,

And you know, this kind of looks

like someone threw up on the piece of paper

Save this part for your website, right?

Or something like that, and kind of give,

you know, more straightforward information.

But that was just my general thought.

When we talk about X-factor

I feel like we maybe skipped over something here.

And for me, you know, the alcohol is always an indicator.

So on the side, I will say ABV, and it'll give you a number.

And that can really kind of tell you, you know,

the style of wine

in the sense of like, is it full bodied,

medium bodied, light bodied, those kinds of things.

So here looking at it, you know, this says 12%.

You perceive alcohol as weight on your palate.

So the higher alcohol wines tend to be richer

in full body and mouth feeling.

So next up, we want to look at the back label here.

And for a lot of them you see a stock text,

there's the government warning

that everybody's required to have

and it must be at least two millimeters tall.

And then you see something that says contain sulfites

and that's something that you need to add by the government.

And, you know, that's kind of a tug of war

somewhat, in the wine world.

All wines contain sulfites

so when someone says no sulfites,

it's a by-product of fermentation,

there's sulfites in the wine.

Kind of weird thing where everybody's like,

oh, it has sulfites, it gives me a headache.

And you know, generally speaking,

there's probably more sulfites in one slice of bread

than there is in a whole bottle of wine.

Probably what you're allergic to is, you know,

the histamines if you're allergic to something.

Or you just had a whole bunch of wine with sugar in it

that was [beep] and gave you a headache.

So the big question is,

can you actually judge a wine by its label?

I think that you can

and now I'm gonna show you how to do it.

Tussock Jumper.

Based on everything I've seen on the front and back label

this would probably be my last wine I would pick,

my least favorite.

I mean, the biggest deal breaker with this wine

is that it just says California appellation, right?

I know nothing about the producer.

That's a big, huge red flag, for me,

it should be for you.

Normally probably found at a grocery store,

which, you can find great wine there,

but all of that together spells doom and gloom to me.

If I had to rate this label it's probably a D.

We'll see, we'll taste it.

Trying to rope me in

to talking to a whole bunch of [beep],

you know, I'm not negative, I don't want to be,

see, look at this.

The color looks all right.

Smells like wine.

Wow, I might've put my foot in my mouth.

Smells good, smells promising.

It feels a little hot, so kind of high in alcohol,

burnin' my throat as it goes down.

I'd say that would make the wine not balanced.

This is pretty solid, you know?

I mean, it tastes like it's real.

It doesn't have a whole bunch of additives to it.

This is okay.

This is better than what I thought it would be.

After tasting it, call it C-, solid.

So next step at number five,

we're going with the Gulp Hablo.

I think for me, what makes this wine promising,

it's less about what's on the front label,

as I turn it over, it's vegan.

I see the importer, T.Edwards.

I see, you know, that it's organic, you know,

so those lead me down this path of saying,

hey, you know, this is probably something I wanna taste.

You know, I want to see what's going on here.

If I had to rank it now, like, before tasting it

you know, I would give this a C.

I don't really know what I'm gonna get

and it seems like there was some thought gone into it.

I'm anxious to try it.

Still have a good screw cap.

So light color, it's what Grenache is supposed to look like,

slightly deceptive because it's got,

could have pretty big tannins.

Smelling a little strawberry, raspberry.

This is solid.

This is definitely, for me, easy drinking.

Hence, maybe that's where the name comes from.

This is gullible.

Like, you can definitely drink this wine,

low alcohol, it's 12%.

And also I think, you know, it probably represents value.

I would actually give this wine a B,

pretty solid, over delivers on value.

This is good.

Coming in hot at number four is the Vinchingo.

Just overall packaging was intriguing,

just looking at the colors,

but being able to look at the wine and the clear glass,

kind of has the MO, no packaging on the top.

It's kind of, you know, you're thinking, you know,

this is more in the natural wine kind of segment of things,

if I had to put it in a category.

I think here, just that it's in a clear bottle,

it just, you know, it looks appetizing to me.

It's like, oh, let me check this out.

Let's see what's going on here.

It is Carignan, which I'm interested to see.

This is a grape

that you normally find in the south of France,

it's in Redwood Valley.

I have, you know, high hopes for this wine, say B.

So cherries, smells like a little bit of mint.

That's good, that's refreshing,

cherries, wood spice.

This is definitely a natural wine, it you know,

has that you know, that term's like,

it smells natty, it tastes natty,

but it's not off the deep end.

I feel like it's a sound wine.

That's actually really tasty.

This is a really cool wine, B+, this is what I expected.

All right, in third place here,

we have the Syrocco from Morocco

from Thalvin and Alain Graillot.

I was just intrigued by this wine.

Just, you know, reading the back label

about how this partnership happened.

I'm not real familiar with wines from Morocco.

So there's that curiosity thing, circling back around.

It's Syrah so I'm familiar with that

and know what it's supposed to taste like,

but I've never had any from Morocco.

So this here, I'd probably say B+.

You guys ready to taste?

So it's got that dark, rich Syrah color.

Smells like Syrah,

smells meaty, savory, rosemary.

That was great.

I didn't even know they can make Syrah like that in Morocco.

I know I'm sure you guys are like, we know, Morocco,

It's from Morocco now,

I don't know how many times I've said it.

This is every bit of what I would want Syrah to be.

I give this an A.

All right, next up we have Dolcetto.

Just very classic label.

Looking at the back it is imported by Skurnik,

it's an importer that I recognize

and have some experience with.

And so that's why it comes in at number two.

I'm just thinking of classic Dolcetto,

I mean, it has that label,

tart and lots of dark fruit

is kind of what I'm expecting here.

If I had to grade this label on labels, you know,

I give it an A, right?

It's kind of a weird way to look at it.

But like, if we were just judging the labels based upon

traditionally what they look like,

this seems like everything checks out here.

Dusty, a little bit of leather, some cedar,

raspberries, red berries.

It's classic Dolcetto, rich, slightly ripe,

pretty decent tannin,

it's sucking the moisture out of my mouth.

It's great, it's everything that it should be.

I give that an A.

So last but not least, [speaks in a foreign language] pick,

from Vacqueyras,

this is a Sang des Cailloux.

So Old World, classic style label from Vacqueyras,

coupled with the importer Kermit Lynch,

if I was looking at those things

I would feel more comfortable saying

this wine is probably gonna taste

exactly what I'm expecting,

what they're advertising, so to speak.

I have high hopes for this wine.

I love Kermit and the stuff that he brings in.

If I had to rate this wine, thinking A, right?

This is kind of the top of the list.

If I was shopping

this would be the one that I would go to.

To me it kind of looks boring,

but you don't drink the label.

Hence that's why we're doing this tasting.

Oh yeah.

Dark ruby color,

smells Old World, smells like the Rhone,

a little tapenade, black olive,

a little bit of white pepper.

There's a savory component there,

kind of almost smells kind of bloody

in kind of a weird way when, you know, hence the name.

Leaps and bounds,

better than any other wines that we tasted today.

I mean, just when you taste it,

how it just sits on your palette,

it's just a different beast than everything else we tasted.

There's a little manure,

which, you know, which I actually kinda like.

It's slightly what we call mousy,

so it kind of, you know,

has a little bit of Brettanomyces to it,

which is the technical term.

This is awesome.

This is like, I want you guys all try it,

you guys should try this.

Maybe if we have enough glasses.

This is A+, you know, all the way, this is A+,

this is, I might have to drink some tonight.

[mellow music]

So today, just by looking at the labels,

we're able to figure out

what we were gonna get inside the bottle.

The cool thing about wine is that

the more you drink,

the better you become at it.

And you accumulate knowledge just by drinking.

Not even thinking that you're doing it, right?

It's just kind of native.

But ultimately, you know,

pass that information on to your wine shop

and let them do their work,

like, let them do their job.

'Cause this is a [beep] slippery slope right here.

Like, you know, the only way that you get better at this

is to drink more, right?

It's called practice.

Keep drinking, you know,

your relationship with wine is not about monogamy.

Drink all of it, any of it, anywhere you can find it.

And that's the only way you're gonna get better.

Wine people love to talk.

You can't get them to shut up about stuff,

tune them out every now and then,

but I'm gonna keep talking.

I'm talking, I'm talking.

Someone staring at me over here

'cause we're going over time.

We should probably taste now.