When a standard 750-ml/75-cl bottle of wine looms before you in a wine shop, a supermarket or on a restaurant table, a story is about to unfold. The bottle shape usually provides at least a clue to the producing region and the labels should be able to fill in all the basic data and sometimes more. In a previous column I explained bottle types in some detail. Our focus today is wine bottle labels: the neck label, the front label and the back label. Of these, the front label always appears and the others may or may not. If you have a wine bottle handy, it may help to keep it before you as you read this.
Below the bottle's capsule or foil is an air space (the ullage) separating the cork from the wine, and below the ullage you may find the neck label, usually revealing the maker's name and perhaps the estate or vintage. Rarely is it important.
Now the plot thickens. Herewith I present -- the front label! It should be, and usually is, the wine's ID card, providing all essential data.