Colloquial term (without wine-legal meaning) for wines with a certain flavour or a wine style with characteristic, unmistakable typicity. In the course of globalisation, they are gaining more and more importance. Characteristic is a taste profile that is independent of the vintage and almost always the same, conceived and produced exactly according to consumer wishes. It is therefore not uncommon for branded wines to be counted among the Coca-Cola wines (McDonald's wines), which wine connoisseurs tend to disparage because of their uniform taste. However, this does not a priori mean that the quality of the product is inferior, but for the most part these are not absolute top wines, as these products have to settle in the lower price segment in order to reach the large masses. Often, both the origin and the grape variety recede into the background, although the latter can also mean a certain brand definition.
![]()
For my many years of work as an editor with a wine and culinary focus, I always like to inform myself about special questions at Wine lexicon. Spontaneous reading and following links often leads to exciting discoveries in the wide world of wine.
Dr. Christa Hanten
Fachjournalistin, Lektorin und Verkosterin, Wien