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Many wines are often sold under different brand names, or sold with a very generic label (Merlot - France).

Of course these wines will all have come from a chateau/co-operative/blender somewhere, I was wondering if there was anything on the label that would identify these wines further, or if it is pot luck.

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Depends on the country, but companies can make it very hard to find where the wine is made and where the grapes are grown. Looking at large supermarket brands, sometimes all that is necessary is listing country of origin and a vague address on the back (and other things like alcohol % and size of bottle). They don't even need to put the types of grapes on if they don't want too. So, to your questions, if you can't find anything on the label about the manufacturer of the wine, it will be very difficult to track it down if they don't want. That's the price you are paying, a super low price without a lot of questions asked.

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  • That was my gut feeling, I've seen Lidl try and charge £8 a bottle for an ok wine, but with only the country and variety on the label. The contents could be almost anything and even worse, could be changed at a moments notice
    – Neil P
    Sep 25, 2018 at 15:56
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    Trader Joe's does this in the US. Most of the wines are from "California" and have no vintage. But this is the price you are paying not to care where they come from. Sep 25, 2018 at 17:56
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Usually you can get a significant amount of information from a wine label. I would suggest simply doing an Internet search for a comprehensive review of what you can glean from a label. Wines, such as those marketed as Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw label, are not specific to a vintage or region for that matter. If I recall correctly these wines referred to as “Two Buck Chuck” has sold for $1.99 a bottle and is a blend of grapes from many unidentified sources, but may be listed as a California Merlot, etc., specificity beyond that is a guess as to region or vintage.

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For wine from France, all bear address of the producer or the cooperative due to traceability and customs, it may however be retagged out of the country. Most French wines also bear AOP information, which states the geographical domain of production.

As for other countries, I don't know.

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