The Wine Pair Podcast

Minisode #17: Why Are Wines Sometimes Named After a Place Rather than the Grape?

• The Wine Pair

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Many people find it confusing that wines from places like France, Italy, and Spain are often named for where they are from rather than the grapes they are made from. For example, did you know that white Sancerre is Sauvignon Blanc? Or that red Burgundy is Pinot Noir? Wait, what?!? And do you get livid when someone asks if you really meant Champagne or you were actually talking about sparkling wine? Trust us, we’ve been there, and we understand your pain! But, there are valid reasons why this happens, and we are here to help you make sense of it all. It has something to do with tradition, history, legislation, and, frankly, money. In this minisode, we spill the tea to help understand a little bit better.

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Show Notes

Minisode #17: Why Are Wines Sometimes Named After a Place Rather than the Grape? 00:00

Hi everyone, and welcome to this special mini-episode of The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair.

If you are new to The Wine Pair Podcast, these minisodes are just shorter versions of the regular podcast that we put on weeks where we might be traveling or handling other life stuff, and instead of tasting and reviewing two to three wines under $25 that are easy to find, which is what we usually do in our longer episodes, in the minisodes, we focus more on things like wine etiquette, wine education, and wine tips. Our goal is to make it fun and understandable to regular, everyday people like us! And our podcast is recommended by Decanter magazine. 

You may have noticed something as you learn more about wine, and we talk about this a lot on the podcast, Carmela, but do you ever notice that some wines are named after the grape varietal like Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir or Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio, and sometimes wines are named after a region like Bordeaux or Burgundy or Barolo or Rioja. And that gets confusing because naming the wine after the region doesn’t help you know what wine it is or what grape it is from necessarily, unless you have gone to the trouble of memorizing what the wines are that come from that region. And some regions, like Bordeaux, are especially confusing because a Bordeaux may be very Cabernet Sauvignon heavy or Merlot heavy depending on where it is from, or more specifically, what bank of the Gironde (Gee - rhonde) river they are on - Right Bank being the more Merlot focused wines. 

Typically, wines that are from Europe, especially the countries of France, Italy, and Spain, are often named for their region. Newer wine regions, like the United States, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa will name the wines for the varietals. Commonly, these are described as old world versus new world wines, and the varietals generally are clones of the old world wines that were brought to these new world areas.

Every once in a while you also get some wines that are made in Europe but are not typical wines for their area, and that leads to an even deeper level of confusion sometimes. A great example are wines that are called Super Tuscans like Sassicaia and Tignanello which are wines made in Tuscany but are made of French varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, and sometimes also blended with regional grapes like Sangiovese. So, the name of the wine and the place of the wine only helps if you are aware of what the winemaker is intending to make. 

So, we know that sometimes wines are named after regions rather than the grapes, but the question is why? Is it to confuse us? Is it to make us mad? Is it to make us feel stupid?  Well, not really, although it does often confuse us, especially in places like the US where we are not used to this idea of a wine being named for where it is from rather than the grape. 

There are a few reasons why.

  • Naming a wine by the region focuses the consumer on terroir, which again, is a fancy way of saying “ the place” and all of the things associated with a place -  like weather and soil and elevation and sun exposure and growing conditions, and in these cases, regional names often indicate both the style and the specific grapes that will be used. Old world wine producers feel that place of origin, this terroir, affects the taste of a wine beyond what comes from the grapes themselves. So, they put a lot of importance on the place because it indicates that only this specific wine can be made in this specific place and with a specific quality because of the terroir. That is almost more important than the grape varietal, and why they are so fussy about maintaining the name of the place as the name of the wine. 
  • Another reason wines are named for places is that there are often strict regulations on which grapes can be grown in specific areas and used in specific wines, and this impacts the price of wine and the expectation of quality. 
  • So, wines are often named by region, with the assumption that consumers are familiar with the grape varietals that the region produces and the quality of wine that region produces, and that only those grapes and wines can come from there. They are expected to just know the grapes in the wine, and what the expected quality of that wine is.
  • For instance, a Barolo is always made in that very specific area of Piedmont, Italy and with 100% Nebbiolo grapes, .while Chianti must be mostly Sangiovese from the Chianti region, but can have up to a 20% blend of other allowed grapes as well - like Canaiolo or Trebbiano, but all from the Chianti region. And this is all a legal classification as much as anything else. So, the fact that the law requires specific grapes to be used and specific winemaking techniques in certain regions in order to be called a specific wine, it seems almost unnecessary to name the grapes themselves - at least for a certain very nerdy subset of wine drinkers because they understand the meaning behind the name
  • In addition, this specificity of place implies a certain level of quality and craftsmanship, a specific expectation around things like grapes used and where those grapes are really from, and what specific grapes can or cannot be blended into the wine, as well as exclusivity and rarity, and frankly price. And this is why a real wine aficionado will ask you annoying questions like - do you really mean Champagne, or do you mean sparkling wine when you say you drank Champagne. Because the distinction actually matters. Champagne is relatively rare, and very expensive, and of a very specific quality, using specific grapes from the specific area, while sparkling wine can come from anywhere and be of any broad range of quality. 
  • Another reason is simply history. The practice of labeling wines by region comes from a time when knowledge of grape varieties was less developed. Before the modern era of scientific analysis and cataloging of grapes, many wines were known primarily by their place of origin and practices evolved over centuries. European viticulture and winemaking has deep historical roots stretching back thousands of years, evolving through the Roman Empire and being refined in monasteries. If you were trying to buy a wine in 1400 BC, you wouldn’t think to ask for a Sauvignon Blanc from the central region of the Loire Valley, you would ask for a Sancerre - a specific wine from a specific place, and you would know what you are getting. 


The naming of wines by grape variety - like Pinot Noir or Malbec -  is actually a pretty recent development and came after advancements in the understanding of grape species, along with the need to differentiate in regions where many varietals were planted after the phylloxera epidemic which was in the 1800’s. And, because in many cases, wines were blends, so the single varietal use is pretty new. So, what is interesting, is that since wines were named for regions, there was less need to be so fussy about what grapes were in them until those same grapes started to be planted in other areas and countries. Once that happened, the winemakers from specific regions wanted to have legal restrictions. So, for a while, sparkling wine made in other countries could be called Champagne until the law required that that could no longer happen. This was to protect the winemakers and to protect the consumer as well.

  • Additionally, naming a wine by the varietal is just easier on the consumer. So, while some brands will always stand out, like Chateau Petrus or Dom Perignon, or Bordeaux and Champagne, the average wine drinker will be able to more easily make a decision on what wine they want to drink based on the grape or grapes in the wine. They don’t have to memorize a bunch of places, just a few grapes.
  • And, some people still don’t care, and simply say things like I’ll take a red wine or a white wine, but hopefully if you are listening to this podcast you are doing so because you do care, and you want to know more about wine, and you are starting to realize that one grape is pretty different from another when it comes to making wine, and that where that wine is made and how it is made and what it is made from also matters a great deal. 


So, Carmela, I hope that helps a bit and clarifies a bit why the name of the wine matters. The real issue is this - if you want to learn about wines not named after varietals, you just kind of have to start memorizing. There is no easier way around it. 

If you want to see the sources for our content today and get the links to learn more, come to our website, look for this minisode, and open up the show notes. 

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