wine labeling

[outbackmac]

When you buy a bottle of wine and it has a 2013 date is that when it was bottled, or fermentaion.?

 

[Turock]

To me, it says that's the year of the grape. However, most wine you buy commercially is a blend, especially if it was a challenging year and the resulting wine isn't exactly a reproduction of the flavor. Commercial wineries want this year's bottle to taste exactly what it tasted like 5 years ago, or as a consumer you will disappointed that the flavor is different. So they always hold back a certain amount of wine from other years so that they can blend to bring the flavor up to what they want. I've noticed a number of commercial bottles of wine that don't even have a date on them.

 

[sour_grapes]

When you buy a bottle of wine and it has a 2013 date is that when it was bottled, or fermentaion.?

According to the TTB:

VINTAGE DATE
A vintage date on the label indicates the year in which the grapes were harvested. If a vintage date is shown on the label at all, an appellation of origin smaller than a country must also be shown. If an American or imported wine uses a State or county, or the foreign equivalent, as an appellation of origin, 85 percent of the grapes must be from that year; if a viticultural area or the foreign equivalent is used, the percentage is raised to 95 percent.