NPR: What’s Really Behind the Wine Label?

A précis of NPR’s Nov. 25, 2009 All Things Considered segment, “Wine: To The Glass From The Factory,” an interview by host Michele Norris with Wine School of Philadelphia founder Keith Wallace.

When NPR’s Michele Norris introduced Keith Wallace on All Things Considered, she warned listeners that he was about to disrupt one of wine’s most enduring romantic images: the bottle on the table coming directly from the picturesque vineyard pictured on its label.

Wallace, founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia, had recently written “How Wine Became Like Fast Food” for The Daily Beast. His argument was that much of the American wine market had become industrialized, while labels continued to evoke small wineries, vineyards and traditional winemaking.

To supply thousands of wine shops across the country, Wallace explained, enormous quantities of grapes and wine move through large-scale production facilities. A familiar winery name on the bottle therefore does not necessarily mean that the winery grew the grapes or even made the wine.

He offered listeners a practical clue: read the fine print. “Produced and bottled by,” Wallace explained, generally indicates that the named producer actually made the wine. Phrases such as “vinted and bottled by” or “cellared and bottled by” can tell a different story.

Norris joked that Wallace had “pulled back the curtain” and asked whether consumers should be disappointed.

Wallace resisted making it a question of good versus bad wine. For him, the issue was transparency.

“It’s just knowing what you’re buying,” he said, comparing the distinction to understanding whether food comes from a small producer or industrial agriculture.

After Norris accused him, laughing, of crushing listeners’ romantic image of winemaking, Wallace apologized: “I feel like the Grinch.”

The point, however, remained simple: informed consumers can decide for themselves what matters in the wines they buy.

Original article: https://www.npr.org/2009/11/25/120846050/wine-to-the-glass-from-the-factory