Just because a wine bears a French name, doesn’t mean it was produced in one of this country’s famous wine-producing regions. And, just because a wine is technically made in a certain location doesn’t mean that’s where the grapes in the mix came from.

So, how can a wine lover easily discern where a particular vintage hails from?

There’s a trick to telling that’s found on most labels if a buyer knows what to look for. The “appellation of origin” will tell a great deal more about a wine than the location of the winery where it was produced.

This particular designation actually denotes the place where most of the grapes used in the bottle were grown. So, if a wine is produced in Florida, but its grapes come from the Napa Valley in California, the appellation of origin will likely say California. The appellation of origin can refer to the name of the country, the state, geographic region or even the county where the grapes come from. American regulations call for 75 percent of the grapes in a bottle to be grown in the listed location.

When the appellation of origin is known, it can tell a great deal about the wine in the bottle. This is especially so if information about the vintage is also known. The harvest location and year can help buyers discern such things as:

• The quality of grapes – It is a known fact that certain parts of the world produce better tasting wine grapes than others. A grape harvest from California, for example, is likely to offer higher quality than grapes grown in Georgia.
• The quality of the particular harvest – When the vintage is matched up with the origin of the harvest, serious buyers can look into the quality of that exact year’s grapes from the specific region. Even in the world’s best grape-producing regions there are good years and bad based on weather conditions.

Find out where the grapes in wine come from and a lot of information about the quality of the product becomes available. To do so, just look for the appellation of origin on the bottle.