Beginner's Guide To Reading A Spanish Wine Label

Problem
Reading a Spanish wine label - how can I read, remember and recognize it at a glance?

Here's a Spanish wine label.

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Translation and Explanation
PLACE NAMES
Alta - high
Haro - old town in the Rioja region, a base for touring the wineries (Easy to remember because it sounds like Harrow in England)
Rioja - region in northern Spain. (Not a grape, not a brand a region. R for Rioja, r for region.)
Rioja region has a large number of wineries around the old town of Haro. We spent a few days there visiting all the vineyards and wineries.
E s p a n a - Spain

Spanish words (which may form part of a brand name)
a g r i c u l t u r o - agriculture
bodega / bodegas (plural) - wine cellar or grocery shop selling wines and foods, often in a wine town, originally a wholesale warehouse but now a small or large shop
contiente - contains (ingredients / additives)
de - of
del - of the
dulce - sweet
en - in
e m b o t t e l a d o - bottled
este - this
finos - fine (plural)
f u n d a d a - founded
Gran - grand
i n v e r n o s - winter (like the French word h i v e r which sounds like hibernate) (I had to insert spaces because the spell checker turned the word into the place name Inverness, in Scotland!)
la - the
ministerio - ministry
N o r t e - North
o r i g e n - origin
producto - product
real - royal
rosado - rose or pink
torre - tower
v i n e d o s - vineyards (I had to insert spaces because automatic spell checker turned the word into videos!)
vino - wine
vinos - wines

BRAND NAMES
CUNE
Lopez de Heredia
Muga


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, language teacher. Please share these posts.