Reserve or Reserva?!

Those of you that are aware of the complexity of European wine labels and the strict rules that are associated with many of the terms used, may be interested to hear that the word Reserve or Reserva on a bottle of New World wine means absolutely nothing. That is not to say that the producer uses the term without any thought, it is quite normal to see the Spanish method adopted whereby the use of reserva or gran reserva are used to indicate the age and quality of the wine in question, but across producers there is no consistency and this term does not meant different wines share a characteristic such as barrel or bottle age.

Another point of interest here is that under EU law the terms Reserva and Gran Reserva are protected and the Spanish give special dispensation to the Chilean's to use them. There was a time when this same right was awarded to Argentinean producers, but this was revoked about five years ago when a flair up in the Falklands provoked anti-Argentinean feeling amongst EU member states. I remember it well, as Peter and Mike had to spend the best part of a day finding every bottle of Argentinean wine with the term 'reserva' on the label and putting a 'reserve' striker over the top to cover the newly illegal term. I'm inclined to think that Brexit will not be the catalyst for the reintroduction the word given Britain's support of the measure at the time.

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