LABEL LANGUAGE

Are ‘reserve’ wines really always better? Beware of the marketing buzzword du jour

Both of the white wines recommended this week sport the word “reserve” prominently on their labels. Reserve, riserva or reserva are terms often used to set one bottle apart from its peers on the liquor stores shelves.

In some cases, these terms are rigorously protected as part of a country’s winemaking laws and project a major quality cue for consumers. Mostly, they’re window-dressing. A marketing buzzword that tested well in a focus group.

The term “reserve” is a frequent teaching point for students tackling their Wine Spirits Education Trust Level 2 certification, which introduces the factors that define quality and style for common wine grapes and styles. Asking what reserve on a wine’s label means to them generally yields positive impressions suggesting a higher-quality product.

There’s the suggestion that the wine was better quality and held back (reserved) for longer aging or a more premium product.

There also might be an idea that “reserve” wines are made only in the very best vintages.

Depending on the producer bottling their reserve wines, those interpretations might be accurate. Most quality wineries tend to have an internal logic for their branding and reserve-tier wines usually represent higher-quality products.

But outside Spain and Italy’s wine appellations, the term doesn’t have a strict, legal definition. It means whatever each winery wants it to mean. There are some North American wineries that place the word on every label, from their $12 reserve wine to their $50 reserve selection. No wonder some critics have reservations about reserve labels.

Italian labelling regulations state that riserva wines have achieved higher than the minimum level of alcohol (suggesting riper, healthy grapes were used) and have matured in the winery’s cellar for a prescribed amount of time before release. In some instances that may be a matter of a year or as many as four or five years.

Likewise, Spain’s wine authority indicates a minimum period of aging in barrel and bottle. There are national standards, as well as stricter regional rules for more celebrated appellations, such as Rioja. Gran reserva represents the highest-quality level and indicates rare bottles that are produced only in exceptional vintages.

For quality-minded producers like Mission Hill and Ken Forrester, the reserve designation sets their more premium production apart from the less complex and more affordable selections in their portfolio.

When there’s no legal definition to declare what makes a reserve wine special, consumers need to look into the producer’s practices and decide for themselves whether or not it’s worth buying.