How to read a Bordeaux label in 60 seconds

What the law makes them print

Every bottle of French appellation wine sold in the European Union has to carry the same particulars: the appellation, the actual alcoholic strength, the volume, where it comes from, who bottled it, the allergen warning for sulfites, the lot number, and, for wine made since December 8, 2023, the ingredients and the nutrition declaration. Most of them have to sit in the same field of vision, legible without turning the bottle. The regulation lets a few sit elsewhere: the lot number, the importer, and the sulfite warning when the ingredients are behind a code you scan rather than printed on the label. The ingredients and the nutrition declaration may go behind that code too, all but the energy figure, which has to be on the bottle. In France 1 more is required, the pregnancy warning, by a decree of October 2, 2006.

That is the boring half of the label, and it is the half that cannot lie.

What a decree regulates

Phrase	What it means	Who may print it
Mis en bouteille au château	Grown, made and bottled on the property, never moved before bottling	Not available to a wine bottled by a cooperative
Mis en bouteille à la propriété	Bottled at the estate, or at the cooperative that made it	Wider
Mis en bouteille dans la région de production	Bottled somewhere in the appellation area	Open to a merchant
Cru Classé, Grand Cru Classé, Cru Bourgeois	A rank in a classification recognized by a regulatory text	Only an estate in the list in force
Élevé en fûts de chêne	At least half the volume aged at least 6 months in oak	Anyone who does it
A grape variety	At least 85% of the wine is that grape	Anyone who does it

What anyone may print

Vieilles vignes is not defined anywhere in French or European law. Nor is grand vin (the estate’s first wine) on its own, nor a good deal of the rest of the poetry. They are not forbidden, they simply carry no definition, and the only rule that applies is that the label must not mislead. The International Organisation of Vine and Wine has recommended reserving vieilles vignes for vines of at least 35 years, which tells you it has been used for younger ones.

The 60 second reading

Find the appellation first, because it is the only word on the bottle that says where the wine is from and under which rules it was made. Then look for a rank, and check whether the word Classé is doing work or whether Grand Cru is part of the appellation. Then read the bottling line, which tells you whether the estate made the wine or bought it. Everything else on the front is the estate talking about itself.