I am still, after living in France for 8 years now, a total wine-choosing novice. I seriously make my friends cringe as I still have the tendency to choose the bottle based on prettiness of the label!

The other week a friend of mine pointed out something to me whilst we were picking up a bottle of wine: the caps on the top of French wine bottles have different colours and it is not random at all. Obviously I then spent a very merry 30 minutes in the wine shop quizing the owner and this is what I found out:

So a blue capsule means the wine is a “vin de table” a cheap(ish) wine, the green capsule means that the wine is from a specific region. The grapes have been grown in that region and the wine was also produced in the same area, and fall under very strict regulations – basically a sign of quality. The orange/ brown capsule is for sweet wines and liquors.

The other thing to look out for is the words Recoltant ( or the letter R), which means that the wine was created entirely by one person. They grew the grapes, harvested them and produced the wine. Negotiant (or the letter N) means that the wine was made by someone else than the producer of the grapes. Now this does not necessarily mean that the wine isn’t good, but the assumption is that if someone has grown the grapes and produced the wine themselves, they have possibly taken better care.

This is just a rule of thumb by the way – one of my favourite wines, which is produced in my region has a blue cap, but is absolutely delicious. Also these rules differ from country to country here in Europe.

– Emilie

PS BTW apparently 2011 was a good year for wine here in France!