I recently just finished a bottle of Red Table Wine called Pleiades from Thackrey and Co and I really enjoyed this wine. I have also been drinking a lot of Volvoreta Limited Edition, which to me was very similar to the Pleiades and the wine shop owner also suggested that it was a good table wine. So, my question what constitutes a table wine? Is it a subjective category or are their real boundaries to what a ‘table wine’ would be?
Subjective. Cheap, yummy, easy to open, and always serviceable.
I think there is a legal definition and then a common usage. I think the legal definition just indicates that it is a wine of between 11% and 14% alcohol. The common usage implies a wine to be consumed with food. This often implies a simple wine that won’t ever be considered great. I also assume that it means the wine is dry.
For me, “table wine” means something I can pop open without a care, not need to turn on my wine nerd palate, and quaff and yack with friends and family about anything but wine!
I agree with you on Thackrey wines. Yummy.
To me table wine and daily drinkers are the same. Inexpensive but tasty bottles that do not require much cellar time that you grab routinely to accompany your evening meal. I used to purchase quite a lot of these wines but as my cellar has matured and grown in size I have stopped buying them. Because of my age and cellar size my “daily drinkers” are now mature wines of a higher ilk.
That’s worked out very well for you. A bit envious. Congrats!
Re “table wines” I agree with you on what the term has come to mean. Although because of my age I also remember the “Vin de Table” and “Vino di Tavola” designations (both translated “table wine”) that were put on the bottle and signified in part that the wine could make no claim to another presumably more prestigious label. And in one of its most humble forms, I think of “table wine” as the type of unlableled wine in a jug that came in three “appelations” if you were lucky (red, white, rose) that you put on the table to be shared with family and friends for everyday meals.
I’m going to stock up on this, so good!
So, my question what constitutes a table wine?
All wine is table wine unless you’re drinking it in a hot tub or a pool, in which case it’s hot tub or pool wine.
In Europe, as mentioned above, it’s a wine that for whatever reason can’t have a more “prestigious” designation, in the same way a village wine is less prestigious than an estate wine.
Doesn’t mean it’s worse or anything like that. In the US, the TTB lets you call it table wine if it’s a wine that isn’t sparkling or fortified and that comes in at under 14% alcohol.