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Wine 101Château or grape? How French and California wines get their names
Pick up a bottle from France and one from California and the labels can look like they're speaking different languages. That's because the two places name their wines in different ways. Once you know the trick, you can read almost any label.
French wines: named for a place
In France, a wine is traditionally named for where the grapes grew. That might be a region like Bordeaux, a village like Chablis, or a single vineyard. The label often carries the producer's name too, and in Bordeaux that's usually a château, which simply means a wine estate. Château Margaux, for example, is both the name of the estate and of its wine. In Burgundy, the producer is more often called a domaine.
What you usually won't see is the grape. French rules decide which grapes are allowed in each appellation, so the label assumes you already know. Red Burgundy is Pinot Noir. Chablis is Chardonnay. Bordeaux reds are typically blends led by Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. The Fleurie in my favorites works the same way: the label names the village, and you're expected to know the wine is made from Gamay.
California wines: named for the grape
California took the opposite approach. Most labels lead with the winery, then the grape, like the Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon in my favorites. It's simple, and you know what you're getting at a glance. It wasn't always this way. California wines once borrowed European names like Burgundy and Champagne, and producers such as Robert Mondavi helped popularize labeling by grape.
There are rules behind it. In most of the US, a wine can carry a grape name if at least 75 percent of it is that grape, and it can name a specific growing area, like Napa Valley, if at least 85 percent of the grapes come from there. The place still matters in California, and you'll see it on the label too. The difference is which one comes first.
Exceptions everywhere
The split isn't absolute. Alsace in France puts the grape on the label, like Riesling or Pinot Gris, and Germany and Austria commonly do too. Some California producers skip the grape and give their blends a proprietary name instead.
How to read either label
On a French label, look for the place name first, then the producer. On a California label, look for the grape, then the growing area. If a French bottle doesn't tell you the grape, look up the appellation, check the back label, or ask the shop.
Neither system is better. One tells you the place and the other tells you the grape, and both are trying to say the same thing: what's in the bottle. Learn a handful of places, like Burgundy meaning Pinot Noir, and the grapes start showing up in plain sight.