Reserve, Grand Reserve, Vintner's Reserve, and All That

Often times, you see a bottle of wine that is labeled as a Reserve (or a foreign language variant thereof), Grand Reserve, Special Reserve, Vintner's Reserve, or some other type of reserve. Today's mission is to tell you, in some places, buyer beware.

But, it depends. It really does.

Let's use last night's wine dinner as an example. Two of the four wines presented to us were Rioja from the same vineyard, albeit not the same vintage as each other. One was simply Rioja, the other Gran Reserva. Is it just labeling or does it mean something?

In the case of Rioja, there are four levels of wine: Rioja, Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva. A wine that is simply labeled Rioja has typically had very little, if any, aging in oak. It's typically been aged a year or so before release. Up next is Crianza. To be a Crianza, a wine from Rioja must have been aged at least one year in oak and one year in bottle. Then, to be a Reserva, stepping up from Crianza, one year on oak is still sufficient, but it steps up to two years in bottle. And, finally, for the grand poobah of all Rioja wines, Gran Reserva must spend at least two years on oak and three in bottle before release although some of the finest exceed both of those limits.

The differences in the wine are stunning as are the prices at times. 

And, while I don't make a habit of being an advertising shill here, because it's on topic, one of the great value wines we drink here is Kirkland Rioja Reserva (one year on oak, two in bottle) that just had a huge price jump from $6.99 to $7.99 per bottle at Costco, until they run out.

France, for example, does not have the same classification style. In France, the estates are classified and while presumably there can be an upgrade or downgrade, that is a very rare occurrence. So, in French wine, you might be buying on reputation.

But, since most of my readers are American (I think) and most of them mostly drink American wine, let's consider that. In the US, sometimes Reserve is a wine in which the winemaker takes special pride and truly thinks it's better. Other times, and likely as often as not, it's a marketing gimmick.

Consider the plight of non-fictional (under a different name) RGW (Really Good Winery, so named because the proprietors would tell you it is really good). Most years, on their most popular grapes, RGW (not who you think and I'm not telling even privately) releasrs a wine, a Reserve, a Special Reserve, a Vintner's Reserve, and a Grand Reserve. The price differences are as might expect fot labeling of that sort running from less than $10 for a bottle up to more than $75 for a bottle.

What is the difference in the wines? 

According to two people that I know personally who used to work at the winery, the difference in the wines is simply the bottle into which the finished product is placed. There is no difference. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nihil. Niente. Ingenting. Semmi.

So, word to the wise: understand what you are buying before you make the buy.