When a bottle is labeled as Cabernet Sauvignon, it must be 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Labeling a wine based on the variety of grape used to make that wine has been commonplace in the New World since the late 1960s. (In Europe, of course, wines are far more commonly labeled according to the place where the grapes were grown.) In the United States, the first varietally labeled wines were required by federal law to be composed of at least 51 percent of the variety named. In 1983, the minimum was raised to the current level of 75 percent. States and specific appellations can choose to exceed (but not fall short of) the federal regulations.