When you see a reserve printed on a wine label, you know that you are looking at a bottle of the best of the best. The most common place where you will see a bottle of reserve is in the red wine category. Most white wines do not benefit from aging, as red wines do, and that is why you will see backup design patterns on white wines, after which you will be red.
So what do you need to reserve on the label of a bottle of wine? For the most part, this is actually a legal design, and there are certain recommendations that a winemaker must follow in order to be able to print a reserve on his label. Just as there are legal guidelines that must be followed in order to print a varietal label on a wine label, a vintage or an area where grapes are grown, there are also guidelines that must be followed before the reserve goes on the label.
In order to stock on the label, the wine inside the bottle must be somehow special. Maybe Vineyard has an area that produces smaller grapes than the rest of the vineyard for any reason. Perhaps the drainage is better, or sometimes they get the day sun instead of the morning sun. If the grapes used in the preparation of wine, is the best of the best, then the label may appear stock.
Another reason that the reserve can go on the label is that the vineyard had an exceptional year. If the winemaker believes that the harvest will be exceptional, he or she can set this wine as a reserve. Maybe when the winemaker bought the crop, he gathered the best grapes and set them for his reserve wine. Or, depending on the winemaker, his reserve wine will increase over a longer period of time than his usual wine. Or perhaps he is aging longer in oak.
So what does label design mean to you? For you, this means that you will have a higher quality wine. Choosing a higher quality grape or choosing a longer aging time, the winemaker creates an additional special bottling. If the winemaker knows his business, this is equivalent to a thinner bottle of wine.
If you are considering buying a bottle of spare wine, I suggest you buy a brand and a vintage that you are already satisfied with. If you have a favorite red wine, it would be logical to assume that if you bought a spare bottle from the same winemaker, that you would be delighted with it. If you do not have a favorite yet, or if you just want to try something new, go to the tasting room. Not all tasting rooms will have tasting reserves, but they may have tasting ordinary wine, in which they have spare bottles.
