Wine Bottle Label Information

On any typical wine bottle, the label contains the following information:

• Winery Name: This is usually the name of the Chateau, Domaine or individual owner of the place where the wine was made.

• Wine name: This is not always there because sometimes the winery name represents the name of the wine. On other wines, the appellation or the appellation and climate themselves represent the name of the wine.

• Vintage: The year the wine was made. This is sometimes missing if the wine is a blend of different years like porto or sparkling wine.

• Appellation: This is not always there. This is usually defined by laws in the country the wine was made in and represents quite often a sub-region where the wine was made.

• Growth level: This is not always there. It indicates the classification of the wine. The classification itself varies from one region to another.

• Climate: This is not always there. It indicates a sub-region of the appellation, with a specific climate and/or soil and is used extensively in Burgundy wines.

• Bottle size: Size of the bottle. A regular bottle 750ml.

• Grape varieties: This is not always there, especially on non-US wines. It is sometimes listed on the other label on the back of the bottle, when there is one.

• Country of origin: This should always be displayed.

• Region of origin: This should always be displayed, although sometimes it can be the appellation itself or part of the appellation, like Bordeaux Supérieur in Bordeaux. Obviously, the appellation implicitely indicates the region so "Bordeaux" will not appear twice.

Now, how do these information fit into each of the Wine and Winery fields in Cellar!? A wine is considered unique by these five fields:

• Winery Name: This should be the same as the Winery Name on the bottle label, but using the naming conventions explained in the Cellar! Help file.

• Vintage: This should be the same vintage as the one on the bottle label. If it's a non-vintage wine, you should click the non-vintage check box.

• Appellation: This should be the exact name of the appellation displayed on the bottle label, which is based on the country of origin's laws. An appelation name is unique across all countries and regions. For example, "Napa Valley" can only exist in California, USA and Margaux can only exist in Bordeaux, France. In some cases, the legal appellation name also contains the growth level, as in "Volnay Premier Cru" or "Saint-Emilion Grand Cru". Note that you can also find the appellations "Volnay" and "Saint Emilion". Also, if the legal appellation name is the same as or contains the name of the region, you should again include it in this field, even though the region itself includes this information.

• Bottle Size - We don't need to tell you what goes into this one, right?

• Label: This should be what makes the wine unique for a specific winery and appellation.

• Sometimes it's a specific name given to the wine.

• Sometimes it's the growth level and/or climate.

• Sometimes when a winery produces more than one wine with the same appellation, same growth level (if applicable), and same climate (if applicable) and does not assign a name to their wine, there is a very good chance that the grape variety actually represents the name of the wine, so put the grape variety into this field.

• If the four previous fields above already exist for a different wine and you are sure the wine you are entering is different, then put what makes it different into this field and check to see that the other entries have been entered correctly.

The other fields where you can enter the remaining wine bottle information are:

• Varieties: You can enter up to five grape varieties that are blended in this wine, along with a percentage for each.

• Country of origin: This field is inside the Winery record (Winery Entry Screen).

• Region of origin: This field is inside the Winery record (Winery Entry Screen).

These fields are not part of what makes a wine unique.

Here are a few examples:

See more examples on the Cellar! website.