Lucky you. You have just purchased a “reserve” cabernet sauvignon from the Goodgrapes Winery. It must be better or it wouldn’t say reserve, right? It must be special or it wouldn’t cost more than the same winery’s regular cabernet, right?
The right answer, however, is maybe.
That’s because although the word “reserve” has a lengthy entry in Webster’s New World Dictionary, in the federal government’s wine regulations there is no definition at all.
Therefore “reserve,” which turns up on more than 10 percent of American wine labels, means whatever the winery wants it to mean.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the arm of the Treasury Department that regulates the wine industry, announced in March 1994 that it was “considering” providing a definition and invited written comments. Nothing has occurred since nor, BATF confirms, seems likely to occur in the near future.
Meanwhile, consumers are free to think that the pricey “reserve” bottling they buy has been–in the dictionary sense of the word–“kept back for later use.” They also might believe it contains superior wine or at least wine made from grapes grown in a superior vineyard; that it was aged in superior cooperage and received special treatment as it aged. They very likely believe it was made only in small quantities.
But at all stages of the wine trade, there is skepticism if not scorn at the widespread use of reserve.
“It doesn’t tell you anything,” acknowledges Michaela Rodino, president of St. Supery Vineyards in the Napa Valley.
“It’s merely a marketing tool used to make consumers think there is something special about the wine, to justify a higher price,” says wholesaler Deborah Crestoni of Chicago Brands Ltd. “Do I trust it? No. A lot of wineries use the term indiscriminately and have caused confusion.”
“It’s used very loosely,” says Steve Byrne, owner of Bistro Banlieue in Lombard. “It’s not a useful sales tool because there’s no way to say exactly what it is.”
“When it appears on a low-priced bottle, it doesn’t mean much to the seller or the buyer,” adds Sterling Pratt, wine director at Schaefer’s in Skokie. “It should mean something above and beyond any other version of the same wine the winery produces.”
In some cases, a winery sells a “reserve” bottling without even offering a “regular” version. Further, based on 12,145 wines tasted at the Beverage Testing Institute here since 1994, although the average price was $14 a bottle, almost 200 of the 1,473 reserves sold for less than $10 a bottle. They were “actually cheaper than the average bottle of U.S. wine,” notes BTI tasting director Charles Laverick.
But the critics also say that the tarnish disappears when a reserve wine has been produced in limited quantity by a prestige (usually small) winery and carries a $25 or higher price tag.
Schaefer’s Pratt declares: “At $25 and up, it takes on new standing. People actually hold the word in some esteem.”
Michael Davis, president of the Chicago wine auction firm Davis & Co., goes further.
“Reserve wines present no problem for us,” he says. “The term has been abused with some mid-range wines, but our market encompasses only a small group of labels, handcrafted wines whose limited production is closely monitored. At our auctions, `reserve’ is considered a value designation, and reserve bottlings command larger bids across the board.”
Dan Berger, a California-based wine journalist and frequent wine competition judge, has traced the term “reserve” as applied to wine back to the Bordeaux region of France. As the trade rebounded after World War II, he says, “the owners of some of the leading chateaux had small quantities of `reserve du chateau’ wines made for their private use. Eventually some of these wines came to auction and drew high prices because the quantity was minuscule.”
Berger believes passionately that pricey American reserve bottlings should be made only in limited quantity.
“In a blind tasting, when you find the smokiest, oakiest wine, chances are it will be a reserve. The wine makes a strong impression, but often elements you expect to find in a great wine, like finesse and elegance, are missing.”
He and other experts recommend against buying young reserve wines for immediate consumption. Usually, they are more agreeable after several years of bottle aging.
Restaurateurs, for their part, are quick to make a distinction between “reserve” wines and a “reserve” wine list.
“My reserve list contains expensive, hard-to-get wines that I don’t put on the regular list because the supply is so limited,” says Steve Byrne. “Whether or not the bottle says reserve doesn’t matter.”
At Spago, managing partner Klaus Puck gives precedence to estate wines from single vineyards and wines with proprietary names such as Opus One, Rubicon, Insignia. “More and more, these are a winery’s top-of-the-line wines,” he says. Reserve may be the second level of quality.
Nonetheless, there is little pressure from domestic sources to formally define reserve. Even the critics support freedom of expression within the still-evolving American wine industry, and most are willing to let the vendor and buyer beware.
“Know the winery, know the wines; that’s the best defense,” says Sterling Pratt.
But wine-producing countries of the European Union are not so sanguine. In Germany, Italy and Spain, reserve wines must meet strict guidelines of production. They do not welcome (and Germany forbids) importation of undefined “reserve” wines from the United States.
A group of Napa Valley vintners has formulated a “Napa Valley Barrel Aged Reserve” program to certify wines aged in wood for specified periods of time. Introduced a year ago, the voluntary program, which applies only to wines intended for export, has been recognized by European Union nations, a Napa source says. However, the wines must be made from grapes grown in Napa Valley appellations. So most export-minded producers continue to duck the issue and ship only regular, vineyard designated or proprietary wines.
