One of the most eye-opening aspects of getting to know wine is understanding how they are labeled, but it can be a challenge at first. After all, with some wines labeled by grape (e.g., Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc) and others labeled by place (e.g. Bordeaux, Pouilly-Fumé, Rioja, Chianti), it’s enough to make would-be wine-lovers throw up their hands and reach for the martini shaker.

How did labels get so confusing?
Over the years, Europeans grew to know and love their local wines; when it came to labeling the bottles, it worked just fine to name the wines after the place the grapes were grown–whether a region, county, the nearest village, or a specific vineyard. After all, the grapes in each of these places changed infrequently from generation to generation; there was no need to put them on the bottle. If you drank the wine called Chablis–named for the town in Burgundy–the grape would always be Chardonnay. If you picked up a bottle of red Rioja, you’d get a wine made mostly from Tempranillo. Burgundy? If it was red it was, with a few exceptions, Pinot Noir.

When vintners in the United States, Australia and South America started making wine, they did not have the same kind of local expertise to call on. For several decades, many wines were identified with famous European wines, and shelves were full of American wines with names like Burgundy and Chablis. For a variety of reasons, that practice was dropped and now they’re identified by the grape inside–Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest. Wines labeled this way are called varietals. Varietal labeling has made it easy for consumers to identify wines they enjoy–and that’s a good thing. However, the drawback is that when wine drinkers only reach for wines based on their favorite grape, they can miss out on the pleasures of getting to know wines by region, too. And as New World regions are becoming renown for particular wines–Napa Valley for Cabernet Sauvignon and New Zealand for Sauvignon Blanc, for example–there are great rewards in paying attention to both the region and the grape.

These days, it’s becoming a little more common to see those European wines labeled clearly with the grape’s name and the place of origin. For example, those of you who signed up for the white wine in this shipment will notice that this month’s Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Riesling tells you where the wine is from–Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (the region) and Bernkastel (the village)–as well as the grape (Riesling). Such clear, easy to read labeling is something to which we can all raise a glass to!

Both of these wines are made from the Pinot Noir grape. However, while New World wines (e.g. the Saint Clair) are labeled with the grape, many Old World wines are labeled simply by the region - Beaune is a village in Burgund, France.