Santa Margherita

The label is a wine’s identity card: the document where you should be able to find the necessary information for knowing the characteristics of what you are buying as well as other useful details that will help you to use it correctly.
One of the first important indications on the label is the wine’s classification as vino da tavola, vino a Indicazione Geografica Tipica (I.G.T.), vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata (D.O.C.) or vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) (see chapter 1.5.1). One may also find abbreviations such as VQPRD (Vino di Qualità Prodotto in Regioni Determinate – Quality Wine Produced in a Specific Region), or VSQPRD (Vino Spumante di  Qualità Prodotto in Regioni Determinate –Quality Sparkling Wine Produced in a Specific Region), which are sometimes used together with D.O.C.s or D.O.C.G.s.
Leaving aside formal, if nonetheless important information such as the volume of the contents (e.g. 0.75 liters), the name and address of the bottler, the lot number and other indications, further details we can find are:

−    the year of the harvest (obligatory for D.O.C.G.s, “novello” wines, Riserva and Superiore wines and wines from certain D.O.C.s), signifying that at least 85% of the wine comes from grapes picked in that vintage;
−    the grape variety or varieties (this may be optional or laid down in the production regulations), remembering that up to 15% of other cultivars could be included in the wine;
−    the alcohol level, which indicates the actual percentage by volume of ethyl alcohol contained in the wine, rounded up or down to the nearest degree or half degree. (If I have a wine that has been analyzed chemically as having 12.7% alcohol, I can choose between putting 12.5% or 13% on the label). One can show the total alcohol content by indicating, as well as the actual one, a second percentage, giving the level of alcohol that you would have if the residual sugars were to be fermented out: this enables you to understand how much sugar the wine contains, by means of the transformation formula “potential alcohol / 0.,6”. If, for example, I find written on the label 12% + 6%, I know that there is around 12% of actual alcohol and a quantity of residual sugars corresponding to 6% alcohol (i.e. 6/0.6 = 10% sugars, around 100 g/l in weight: a sweet wine);
−    the annotation “contains sulphites”, if there is a presence of sulphur dioxide and sulphites of above 10 mg per liter (practically always, considering that even without adding any deliberately, sulphites are formed naturally during fermentation. It is therefore safer for even those who make organic or “natural” wines to adopt this wording);
−    the expression “imbottigliato all'origine” (“bottled at the place of origin”) or “imbottigliato dal viticoltore” (“estate-bottled” or “bottled by the grower”), which reveals that the entire production process has been carried out by a single person or family.

There are also other indications that are very often to be found on the labels of D.O.C. and D.O.C.G. wines (if specified in the production regulations), such as:

−    Classico: the grapes used in the production of that wine come from the traditional, historic heartland of the D.O.C. area;
−    Superiore: a wine with superior characteristics compared to the standard wine of the D.O.C. or D.O.C.G.. Such wines will normally be made from grapes with a higher sugar content and the wine will have a higher level of total alcohol than those established for the standard version; in some production regulations, the right to the term “Superiore” also calls for an extra year of aging;
−    Riserva: a wine that has undergone longer aging (one or two) compared to the standard wine and, when laid down in the regulations, with certain stricter analytical parameters (e.g. higher dry extract or alcohol levels).