You’re at the store hunting for a good wine for tonight’s dinner, or maybe a gift. But you’re confronted with a sea of labels. How to choose? Even if you have a pretty good idea what type of wine you want, it still can be a daunting task.Producers know this, so many try to catch your eye with flashy artwork or clever names. They recognize that labels can be effective advertising tools. Most of the promotional information is found on the back label. More and more, it seems, wineries hype their product with flowery or even humorous prose.Occasionally they actually offer useful information, such as the grape varieties, growing conditions or winemaking methods. Other important information, such as grape yield, degree of oak influence or style often is neglected.Many of these wines will be quite good, but you basically are faced with an “Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail” moment; instead of the fancy gold chalice, you’re often better served by choosing a straightforward, no-nonsense label.Wine labels pack a lot of information in a small space, but some important information is not always self-evident. It helps to know a few things about the rules governing wine labels. As far as I know, every country where wine is produced has laws governing wine production and what can be put on a label. Every label must directly or indirectly (more on this later) indicate the origin, grape variety, age and producer of the wine. The basic purpose of these laws is to give consumers a level of assurance about the authenticity of what they are buying.Origin. Every label provides a geographic designation indicating where the grapes were grown. This can vary from a large region like California, to a smaller one like Sonoma County, to an even smaller one like Dry Creek Valley, to a specific vineyard like Lytton Springs. European labels traditionally have reflected the prominence of the origin, with the grape variety or varieties listed in small print or not at all. In this latter case, one needs to know something about the legally allowed grapes for the particular region.Variety. In most cases, the law requires the wine to contain a minimum percentage (usually at least 75 percent, sometimes as much as 90 percent) of the grape on the label. In some cases, but not all, the grapes used to make up the difference also are regulated. In recent years, we have seen more varietally labeled wines from Europe, primarily to capitalize on the popularity of varietal wines in the New World.Age. The vintage date, the year in which the grapes were grown and harvested, obviously tells you how old the wine is. This also can give a clue to a wine’s quality, if you know about the quality of the vintages in a particular region. Also, with certain grapes (most white wines and red wines such as Beaujolais), a younger wine usually is better.The vintage also can give hints about the taste. Expect a young wine to be fresh and fruity, while a mature wine is more likely to be smooth and complex. Nonvintage wines are blends of multiple (usually recent) vintages and generally are meant for drinking right away.Producer. In some ways, the producer’s name is the most important information on a wine label. If you are familiar with the producer, you will have an idea of their record for quality and the style of wine they make. For imported wines, identifying the importer may be just as critical. I have written columns before about reliable importers. Finding such a name on a label is a virtual guarantee of quality.There also is other important information on a wine label — for instance, the alcohol level and the bottle size. The alcohol level can be particularly valuable, as levels have jumped up significantly in recent years. Knowing the wine you will be drinking has 16 percent alcohol, instead of 13 percent ,could mean the difference between driving home drunk or sober.Also, many wines have proprietary names, so it helps if the label indicates the grape varieties in the blend.Finally, a note of caution. You may encounter various special designations, such as “reserve,” “special selection,” or a lot number. These originally were intended to indicate that the wine has received special attention and often still do, but these terms are not regulated and are often misused.—Rich Mauro has been writing about wine since 1995. He is a policy analyst for the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Reach him at rich@rmpeoplespalate.com or 30 S. Prospect St., Colorado Springs 80903.