A vineyard designated wine is a wine produced from the product of a single vineyard with that vineyard's name appearing on the wine label. Throughout the

history of winemaking Wine has been produced for thousands of years, with evidence of ancient wine production in Georgia from BC (the earliest known traces of wine), West Azerbaijan province of Iran from BC, Armenia from BC (large-scale production), and Sicil ...

and viticulture, the differences in quality between one plot of land and another have been observed with the boundaries of these vineyard generally well demarcated. In

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

, the vineyards of the area are classified with the highest quality vineyards receiving the ranking of Grand cru. The names of these vineyards, such as Montrachet, will often appear on the wine label of Burgundy wines in bolder, more prominent print than even the name of the producer.K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'' pg 194-196 Workman Publishing 2001 In the United States, the appearance of vineyards name on wine labels is a relatively recent phenomenon with one of the first vineyard designated premium wines in California being the 1966 vintage Heitz Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Later examples include the 1975 Robert Young Vineyard

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

from the Sonoma wine estate of Chateau St. Jean.T. Elkjer '
Tale of Two Valleys
"'' Appellation America, October 4, 2005 On the East Coast, Unionville Vineyards produces single vineyard wines, primarily

. Under US

wine laws Wine laws are legislation regulating various aspects of production and sales of wine. The purpose of wine laws includes combating wine fraud, by means of regulated protected designations of origin, labelling practices and classification of wine, a ...

, if the name of vineyard appears on the label at least 95% of the grapes used to make the wine must come from that vineyard.CNN Interactive '
Wine labels: How to read them
'' CNN.com November 19th, 1998

References

{{reflist

External links

*T. Caputo '
Vineyard-Designated Wines Showcase Growers
'' Wine Review Online, August 5, 2008 *A. Goldfarb '

'' Appellation America, May 17, 2007 Viticulture Wine terminology