Reserve wine what does it mean

Once you have a group of producers you know and trust, if they release an exceptional wine, then you can take them at their word. Small producers like Theorem Vineyards live or die by the strength of our wine, not our marketing. When we say a wine is a rare vintage like the wines we produced during the Napa growing season , patrons can trust it. No two varietals, years, or bottles are the same, making it deeply satisfying to find an exceptional vintage. There are exceptions, particularly in Europe.

The term "Reserva" on a bottle from Spain or Portugal, or "Riserva" from Italy, indicates a wine made under a particular set of regulatory parameters, mostly referring to the time it was spent in barrels before release. And the Washington Wine Quality Alliance a voluntary, self-governing group of a couple dozen producers has declared that "reserve" has to mean something.

In order for a member winery to call a wine "reserve," it means only 3, cases or 10 percent whichever is greater of a winery's production can be labeled as such. These wines must be designated by the winemaker as higher quality and higher priced. Apr 5, So if you see a wine from Spain or Italy with the labeling of Reserve, Riserva or Reserva, you can rest easy that this does actually mean that the wine is a bit more special.

In the rest of the world, however, particularly the wine regions of the new world — places like Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, and the United States — the labeling of a wine as reserve is basically BS. In the TTB — the government organization that regulates U. Answering that question is a bit easier said than done, but a little bit of background can help clear up the confusion surrounding reserve wine. In this way, the term had nothing to do with the actual fermentation or blending process but instead was used after the fact as a signpost for quality.

There are plenty of winemakers who truly do put their best foot forward in only labeling exceptional products with the term. Unfortunately, there are just as many wineries that fall on the other side of the spectrum.

Important to understand when discussing reserve wines is that the vast majority of wine producing regions throughout the world are not required to follow any types of rules when it comes to using the term. The worst case scenario, on the other hand, is that the term was only used to help move the bottle off shelves — far more common than most in the industry would like to admit.