You're at a restaurant and somehow the job of ordering wine has landed on your plate - literally. You realize that, much to your dismay, not only will you have to order the wine; you'll also be expected to make sure it's okay for your table to drink.

Even for the avid wine drinker, deciding on a bottle of wine can be a daunting task with so many varieties of wine on the market today. Wine labels don't help either with the various terms in foreign languages and the small print. Sometimes reading a wine label makes you feel like you need a secret decoder ring, but rest assured that this is not to confuse you the customer, but rather to help you. The information on the label is there to tell you about the wine and also the winery and conditions of production. Once you have an idea of what to look for on a wine label, deciphering it shouldn't require much effort.