Is Your Favorite Wine Made from Berries? Check Again!

Think berries…strawberries, raspberries, and blue berries. Then think wine.  Yes, some of these delicate berry flavors can be present in fine wines. But, your favorite varietal wines aren’t made from berries. Boone’s Farm, maybe, but not your wine. Right?

Well, hold on a minute. When you actually get technical about it, it turns out that grapes are, from a botanical perspective, berries, not a fruit! 

Though you’ll commonly hear grapes referred to as “fruit,” it turns out that botanists technically classify grapes as berries since each fruit forms from a single flower.

This gets even more interesting when you find out that a strawberry isn’t actually a berry. Neither is a blackberry.  Then, you learn that a banana is a berry! Huh?

Well, regardless, the wines that you commonly drink are berry wines, not fruit wines.  Another wine fun-fact. Cheers!

Ever Wonder How Many Grapes it Takes to Make a Bottle of Wine?

Last time we took a look at a wine fun-fact about a butt of wine and learned that it is a measure approximately equal to two standard barrels.

So, here's some more wine fun-facts about the amount of grapes used in producing wine.

When you look out at a vineyard, it's easy to imagine that the grapes produced in that vineyard will make "a ton" of wine. Well, one ton of grapes results in a little more than two barrels of wine! 

One barrel of wine equals:

• 60 gallons

• 25 cases

• 300 bottles

Stating it the other way around, to produce one bottle of wine it takes about 2.8 pounds of grapes or approximately four clusters.

So, there you go. A few more wine fun-facts.  Maybe not as interesting as last week's butt of wine, but I hope this helps to put some things into perspective. Cheers!

How Much is a Buttload of Wine?

It may seem like a funny or pointless question, but there's a real answer!  So, here's a wine fun-fact.

The “butt” is a measure of liquid volume equaling two hogsheads.  That may not be of much help. So, in terms that we all understand, a butt of wine is approximately 126 gallons. That's compared to a standard wine barrel that contains about 60 gallons. So, technically, a buttload of wine is roughly two standard barrels.

And, just so you know, a butt of wine is also called a pipe. Who knew? Cheers!

Do You Know a Variety from a Varietal?

There are a lot of confusing wine terms. And there seems to be constant confusion over the difference between a variety and a varietal. Yet, it's quite simple.

Old World wines, most notably from western European countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany, identified their wines by region. So, with French wines, you'll find the wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Loire Valley and the Rhône Valley. Italy has Chianti, Spain has Rioja and Germany has Pfalz and Franken.  If you know the region, you know the wines and the grapes used to produce them.

But the New World, most notably California, decided on a different tact. Instead of just growing grapes by regions, the early winemaker found that California's climate and soils were excellent for growing many grapes and producing many wines.  So, they focused on selling wines that identified the type of grape used in its production. This is where the two words come in. Various grape varieties are used to produce varietal wines.  While Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir are each a grape variety, when they are used exclusively to produce a wine, the wine is considered a varietal wine.

Now, as usual, things are never quite so simple. In California, wines using varietal names must derive at least 75% of their volume from the grape variety designated.  So, yes, when you buy a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, it's made from the Cabernet Sauvignon variety of grape. At least 75% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. The other 25% of the grape variety(s) used can be left to the winemaker's creativity.

Nonetheless, just remember when you pick up a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, know that you are purchasing a varietal wine made with the Cabernet Sauvignon variety of grape. Cheers!

What Does "Estate Bottled" Mean on a Wine Label?

Last time we looked at the term "Vinted by" that may appear on a wine label indicating that somebody else grew the grapes and/or produced the wine. The sellers simply put their name on it.

A step up is the situation where the winery and the winery's own vineyards are not in the same viticultural area. Here, the winery may designate that the wine has been "Proprietor Grown" on the label.

In the best of all cases, that is becoming rarer, is when a bottle's label identifies that it is "Estate Bottled."  This means the winery produced 100% of the grapes used to make the wine, and the grapes were pressed, fermented, aged and bottled in the viticultural area stated on the label.

When looking for “Estate Bottled” wines from France, look for "Mis en Bouteille au Château," "Mis en Bouteille au domaine" or "Mis en Bouteille a la Propriete."  In Italy, it's bottigliato all’origine, while in Spain it's "Embotellat a la Propietat" and in Germany look for "Erzeugerabfüllung."

Estate Bottled wines generally are of higher quality and therefore a bit more pricey. But, while a lot of information on a wine label is actually marketing, you can trust that an Estate Bottled wine has been entirely made the label's winery. Cheers!