A bottle of wine is stored in wooden barrels for a period of time. The barrels are opened and bottled after the aging period. For example, a 5-year wine, a 10-year wine, etc. The date on the label is the year the grapes were picked, the other date is the time when the red wine was bottled after aging, and the intervening years should be the fermentation time in oak barrels.

1. Wine year

The year of wine refers to the harvest year of the grapes used to make the wine. Usually, the flavor of the same wine produced by the same winery using the same grape variety from the same vineyard will vary greatly due to different climatic conditions in different years. And this is where the vintage differences come from.

2. The drinking period of wine

The drinking period refers to the stage when the wine is suitable for drinking. Wine is alive, and like people, the life of wine will go through the process of youth, development, maturity, peak and decline. Generally speaking, wine is best drunk at the peak of its life, which is often said to be the best drinking period. If it is too young, the tannins will be rougher and the aroma will be less complex. If stored for too long, the wine will lose its fruity aroma after its peak period.

3. The shelf life of wine

The shelf life of wine is a wine term with Chinese characteristics, because it does not exist abroad. This is mainly because Chinese people don’t have much exposure to wine, so they think of the shelf life of milk and the shelf life of wine. In fact, in Western countries where wine culture is popular, they mostly talk about the "best drinking period".

According to the latest "National Food Safety Standards for Prepackaged Food Labeling General Principles", most foods need to indicate the "minimum shelf life", while wine, spirits, sparkling wine, aromatic wine, national wine and sparkling wine There are also beverages with an alcohol content greater than or equal to 10% that do not require a shelf life label. Therefore, according to regulations, most wines do not need to have an expiration date on the back label. However, why do wines with shelf life labels appear on the market? This is of course influenced by Chinese characteristics. In China, where the wine culture is not prosperous, many consumers believe that products without a "shelf life" label are substandard. In order to make consumers feel at ease when buying, some manufacturers have begun to mark the shelf life. From the current point of view, the shelf life of wine on the market is generally "10 years."

4. Wine filling date

The wine filling date refers to the bottling date of the wine. In the Northern Hemisphere, the grape harvest season generally begins around September. After the wine is picked, fermented, aged in oak barrels, it is then bottled. When bottling, the filling date is usually stamped.

If the filling date is on the Chinese back label, it will usually be in the form of "a certain day of a certain month of a certain year", such as: "Filling date: November 11, 2014". However, the bottling date marked on the official label of imported wine is different. Taking the marking method on the official label of a French Bordeaux wine from the 2003 vintage as an example, it may be in the format of "L513511:28". This means that it was bottled at 11:28 on the 135th day of 2005. From this, it can be deduced that this bottle of wine has been aged for approximately 18 months, so the aging time of the wine can also be roughly calculated from the filling date.

For most ordinary wines, the wine needs to be consumed as soon as possible within 1 to 2 years after bottling. The saying "wine tastes better with age" does not apply to wine. Cheap wine loses all its flavor after being stored for 1 to 2 years, making it tasteless. Therefore, the filling date is still one of the major references for judging the suitable drinking period.

According to China's "General Principles for the Labeling of Prepackaged Beverages and Wines" (GB10344-2005), "Fermented Wines and Their Preparations" (GB2758-2012) and "General Principles for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" (GB7718-2011) , the Chinese back label of imported wine must contain the filling date of the wine. Some foreign wineries will indicate the filling date on the main label, while others will not.