Wine myths
The name on a European label is the grape
“Chablis, Sancerre, Rioja, Chianti and Barolo are grape varieties.”
They are all places. European labels traditionally name where the wine is from and leave you to know what is planted there — which is why the same wine is called Chardonnay in Australia and Chablis in France.
The full answer
Chablis is Chardonnay. Sancerre is Sauvignon Blanc if it is white and Pinot Noir if it is red. Red Burgundy is Pinot Noir; white Burgundy is Chardonnay. Beaujolais is Gamay. Barolo and Barbaresco are Nebbiolo. Chianti is mostly Sangiovese. Rioja is mostly Tempranillo.
The convention exists because these systems were built on the premise that place, not variety, is what determines a wine — and because in most of them the permitted varieties are fixed by law, so naming them would be redundant.
This is why "what grape is Chablis?" is among the most-asked wine questions in English, and why the answer is not on the bottle.
The rule is not absolute. Alsace names its grapes, as do many Italian appellations, and a growing number of European producers add the variety to a back label.
Some European names genuinely are grapes — Barbera, Vermentino, Grüner Veltliner — and a few, like Montepulciano, are both.
Why the belief persists
Most of the world labels by variety, so a reader whose first wines were Australian or Californian has no reason to expect anything else.
What producers in a particular place conventionally do. Distinct from a regulated requirement: convention is what happens, regulation is what is compulsory, and confusing the two is one of the commonest errors in regional wine writing.
What would settle it: Documented practice in the region diverging from the stated convention.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) — INAO, France
- Italian DOP and IGP wine register — Ministero dell’agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF)