Table wine

From EncycloWine

Table wine as a term has two different uses. In the United States, table wine is used as a legal definition to differentiate standard wine from sparkling wine or fortified wine. In the European Union table wine designates the lowest quality level of wine produced, one that qualifies for neither an appellation nor even a broad regional designation.

In France and Luxembourg it is called vin de table. Similar in nature are Spain's vino de mesa, Portugal's vinho de mesa, Italy's vino da tavola, Greece's epitrapezios oinos, and Germany's Deutscher Tafelwein.

European Union guidelines stipulate that all wine produced must fall into one of two categories: table wine or the superior quality wine. Table wine labels typically cannot disclose the region of production or the vintage date (though "lot numbers" which can bear a striking resemblance to dates are permitted). In France the producers must use postal codes to prevent the name of an appellation from appearing even in fine print on the label.

The fraction of national production classified as table wine varies dramatically from country to country; as of 2000, in France a majority (by volume) of wine is vin de table, while in Germany only 5% is Deutscher Tafelwein. Table wine from anywhere in the EU can be blended together to produce European Table Wine.

European table wines are generally made from the highest-yielding sites and vinified in an industrial manner. In the 1950s, when per capita consumption of wine was much higher, there was a need for vast quantities of cheap wine, but now much of it goes into the European Union's troublesome [wine lake]]". Even today it is possible in France to purchase a liter of thin, pale wine, packaged in a box rather than a bottle, for the equivalent of a couple U.S. dollars.

In Italy, sometimes their finest wines are produced from sites that would be entitled to a prestigious appellation, but are classified as low-quality table wines because they are produced from non-traditional grapes or with non-traditional winemaking processes. The classic examples are the wines called Super Tuscans, which are made with international varieties (that is, grapes not indigenous to Italy such as Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon) and therefore do not qualify for any Tuscan appellation. In 1992 Italy created the Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) specifically to permit Super Tuscans to leave the table wine classification of the DOC and become quality wine.