COMMERCIAL WINE LABEL REQUIREMENTS | WINEPOD PERSONAL WINERY

Explanation:

BRAND: Anything from 'Gallo' or 'User's Winery' to 'Da Kine.'

Image: Anything visual, such as a line drawing, monogram, or coat of arms, that is not a background and fits in the visual field between the brand and the details.

Vintage: The year that at least 95% of the grapes were grown, legally must be all 4 digits.

Vineyard Designation: The name of the vineyard where the grapes were grown. The word 'Vineyard' need not appear. Legally the wine must be 95% from the named vineyard. This line is optional (legally). A common variant is the phrase 'Estate Bottled' which legally means that 100% of the wine was 'grown, produced and bottled' on property legally controlled by the bottling winery.

Appellation: The complete, correct, legal name of the American Viticultural Appellation (AVA) where at least 85% of the grapes were grown. So-called 'political appellations' refer to governmentally recognized boundaries (need not be recognized as an AVA) such as country, state, or county names. These appellations are trickier commercially but many home winemakers want to use the name of their city, neighborhood, or other region not recognized as an AVA.

Varietal or Type: The variety of grape/wine that comprises at least 75% of the wine in the bottle. A 'Type' may be as simple as 'Red Wine' (alcohol > =14.1%) or 'Red Table Wine' (alcohol <14.1%). Stylistic types such as 'Port' or 'Champagne' would be stated here, as would proprietary names such as 'Meritage' or 'Conundrum.'

Produced and Bottled by Statement: (colloquially referred to as the 'P&B statement') By law states the legal name and location (by city) of the bottling winery and describes (using narrowly defined terms) the degree of production that occurred in the bottling winery. For example, the P&B 'Grown, Produced, and Bottled by...' is legally equivalent to the phrase 'Estate Bottled' and a P&B that says 'Bottled by...' means only that the wine was bottled at that winery (wines so labeled could, legally, have been bottled directly from a tanker truck without ever actually being physically received in the bottling winery.)