The secret to picking the perfect bottle of wine might be on the back label

Wine trends change: For young wine drinkers today, seeing a bottle on an Instagram account of a restaurant or influencer they follow can be more powerful than the 100-point scores meted out by old-line wine media. But there’s a less talked-about trick that in-the-know drinkers use when buying global imported wine: The label on the back of the bottle sometimes tells you more than the one on the front.

Shopping by the importer whose label is on the back of the bottle has been a savvy wine hack for decades, a decoder ring for consumers to suss out quality amid the ever-expanding and always changing world of international wine options. Pioneering importers such as Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Becky Wasserman & Co., Louis/Dressner and Rosenthal Wine Merchant helped establish the practice for American wine drinkers back in the late 20th century, and it remains a true (if sometimes nuanced) way to shop today, aided and expanded by the work of a new generation of wine importers and distributors.

https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2019-07-24/how-to-pick-wine-label-secret-tips