Alex Burch, wine director of Bastion in Nashville, cautioned, “Picking a wine by its label is slightly better than judging a book by its cover.” Still, there are a lot of things going on in one of those labels, more than I even realized, with words like “producer” and “importer” meaning more than descriptors like “bright” and “smoky.” As Jhonel Faelnar, sommelier and wine director, at Atoboy and Atomix in New York City describes what those labels contain: “Producer, appellation or place of origin, grape variety, and vintage. Wines are usually grouped under grape variety and region, so you can start there and dive in.
Picking a wine by its label is slightly better than judging a book by its cover.
