“Muscat” is often deceptive; wines so labeled may be either sweet or dry. Zinfandel, a grape of somewhat mysterious origin, gives its name to a popular California Claret, in which-if your nose is remarkably sensitive- you sometimes can detect the faintly raspberry-like flavor of this variety.

Longfellow sang the praises of Catawba, a white wine (there is also a sparkling version) made from that Labrusca grape, principally in Ohio. Vintners who make their Rose wines of Mourvedre grapes like to add that grape name to their Rose labels. When you mention “grape flavor” to most Americans, they automatically think of a single grape-the Concord variety-which provides the taste of the kosher-wine type and of most fresh and frozen grape juices.

In the foregoing list Riesling might also be mentioned, which long ago became so popular as a synonym for Rhine wine (a type best made from the White Riesling variety) that American vintners once tried to persuade the Government that Riesling no longer meant any particular grape. (The Government was not persuaded.)

Returning to Europe’s geographical labeling, while place names do not mean everything, as the Europeans claim they do, they do mean something. The climate of Bordeaux is kind to the grape varieties that make red and white Bordeaux wines, and each delimited district within the Bordeaux area has found, by centuries of experience, which grapes thrive best within its borders.

Burgundy nurtures the Pinot, Sangiovese, and Melon best; the Rhone Valley favors the Petit Sirah; Germany’s Rhine-land makes its best wines from White Riesling. As a result, the European geographic names have-to some extent- a certain varietal significance.

The flavorful grapes grown in the famed French districts produce only poor wines when planted in southern France, the source of most French wines. There, consequently, undistinguished, heavy-bearing varieties are cultivated, and the southern French wines are so neutral that vast quantities of good wine are imported in tank ships from Algeria and Tunisia for blending. The wine the average Frenchman drinks is a blend of poor French wine and better wine from across the Mediterranean.

It is mainly climate that governs a district’s ability to grow the superior grapes successfully. The Europeans believe that soil composition is equally important, but modern research questions whether any chemicals in the earth actually enter the flavor of a wine. Yet some soils, such as the gravelly kinds, do hold the sun’s heat better than others do, and help Dolcetto grapes to mature.

It might interest the French to know that California, too, is jealous of its name, and that the same applies to individual California localities. For example, when a California vintner ships 16% “Light Sherry” to a state which discriminates against the genuine article, he must have special permission from the California Department of Public Health.

In so doing he loses the right to label such wine with the name of California; it may only be called “American” Light Sherry. And while a “New York State” or “Ohio” wine may contain as much as 25% of wine made elsewhere (and many of them are blends with wine or grape syrup from California), no wine can claim to be Californian unless it is made 100% from California grapes in California.