Wine names

[TheEngineer]

Hi Gilbertlau, Innkeeper is right, it is a complicated question that could fill volumes. Asking as the wine store is the absolute right answer and there are very little rules and so many ways to teat the topic.

It might help to know which area you are looking for wine first. You mention VDP, which is the German wine standard. This is a GREAT place to start because it is rather technical and therefore has some basis fro definitions and definitives...having said that, it is still not perfect and otehr regions won't have the same level of definition potentially.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_wine_classification


You mention also AOC, and that is much broader, many countries and regions will administer their own AOC and each will be different. So the thing to do is to read up on them prior to going to a wine store. Say you want to pick up a French Burgundy. You can read up on that and see the difference between Bougogne, Village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru, etc, etc...


Each area will have its own classification rules so it pays to know about them.