Wikipedia:WikiProject Food and drink/Wines task force/Category tree

Like many subjects on Wikipedia, wine is a complex and multi-faceted subject that touches on a wide range of subjects. It overlaps into the worlds of chemistry, biology, geology, climatology, agriculture, botany, business and marketing, cuisine, history, psychology and civilization-all perhaps in the same article. Under the parent category of Category:Wine, there are a wide ranges of wine-related articles that need to be properly categorized. Since Wikipedia's inception in 2001, many good faith editors have created a wide assortment of wine categories that contributed to an incoherent, cohesiveness hodgepodge of categories that lack structure or organization. Many categories cover duplicated material or were misappropriated to the wrong sub-set of articles. Since late 2009, the Wine Project has been involved in an extensive clean up to improve the categorization of wine articles. This project guideline is an attempt to explain the different types of wine articles that exist and offer guidance on what would be the best path to categorize them in a consistent, organized manner. Anyone is welcome to comment on wine articles categorization either on this guideline's talk page or the project's talk page.

Different types of wine articles
The first step in categorizing wine articles is to distinguish what type of article it is. As Wikipedia is a constant "work in progress", the type of article may not be readily apparent by the content left by previous editors. If you are not sure of the type of article, feel free to ask on the article's talk page or over at the Wine Project.

Main types of wine articles
The vast majority of wine related articles fall into 5 categories listed below-Grape varieties, Wine regions, Quality level designations (such as AOCs or DOCs regions), Producers and Wine styles. The 6th category listed-Individual specific wines-is for individual bottlings made from a producer (such as Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon) and are very rare to have individual Wikipedia articles on. This category is included here because it is often confused with the proper categorization of articles on producers, regions and quality level designations.


 * Grape varieties - These include articles like Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo and Chardonnay. Many wines, especially those in the New World are varietally labeled and so it is common to refer to Cabernet Sauvignon as both a grape and a wine. In Wikipedia, we discuss both the grape details and wines made from that grape in the same article. For the benefit of classification, we categorizes these articles as Category:Grape varieties or under a regional grape variety sub-cat like Category:Wine grapes of Italy, for country/region sub categories we do not list all planted grapes, we list only grapes that have originated or is strongly associated with that country/region, i.e. Grenache originating in Spain but has a strong connection with France and should be categorized in both countries sub categories, similarly e.g. Syrah should be categorised in both France and Australia.


 * Wine regions - These include regional overview articles like Loire Valley (wine), South African wine and Washington wine. These articles are usually distinguished from articles on the geo-political region by the (wine) qualifier such as the island of Corsica vs the Corsica wine article which gives a regional overview of wines from the island. Articles on the geo-political unit such Pauillac should not be categorized with wine cats. A separate Pauillac (wine) article should be created with all the wine specific details. In cases where there is not enough details wine details to merit an article apart from the geo-political unit, regional overview articles such as Languedoc wine should be created and appropriately categorized.
 * These articles would be categorized under either the main regional cat for their country such as Category:Wine of South Africa or smaller sub cats such as Category:Wine regions of France for the Loire Valley and Corsica wine articles. This also includes appellations such as American Viticultural Areas like the Russian River Valley AVA but do note there is a difference between wine region articles and articles on European quality level designations like Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOCs in France), Denominazione di origine controllata (DOCs in Italy), Denominación de Origen (DOs in Spain) and Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOCs in Portugal). See below.


 * Quality level designations - In Europe, wine production takes place under a quality classification system that has specific rules and regulations that a producer must follow in order to have their wine labeled as a Chianti, Champagne or Rioja. While part of these AOCs/DOCs regulations include growing the grapes within the boundaries of a certain region, that alone doesn't mean they can label their wines with that region. They must also follow specific grape variety composition, yields levels, aging requirements as well as potentially other winemaking and viticultural practices. Some wine even have to submit to a tasting panel in order to ensure that they meet a certain quality. For this reason, AOCs and DOCs are more probably classified as "quality level designations" rather than as simply wine regions. However, in practice, articles will normally refer to them as regions since that is a common public perception. These articles should have categories specifying them as AOCs and DOCs such as Category:French wine AOCs and Category:Italian DOC.


 * Producers and wineries - These include articles on big corporations such as Foster's Group with wine holdings as well as smaller wineries such as Quilceda Creek Vintners, Schloss Vollrads and Dominio de Pingus. Note that some wineries, most notably those of Bordeaux, produce a wine that is simply labeled with the wineries name such as Chateau Petrus' house wine. Rather than create a separate Chateau Petrus (wine) article, Wikipedia discusses both the wine and the estate in the same article. Since the wine estate is the primary topic, these articles should be categorized with categories such as Category:Wineries of Spain, Category:Bordeaux wine producers and Category:Washington (U.S. state) wineries, etc.


 * Individual specific wines- Articles on these are very rare since so few individual wines are notable on their own apart from the context of being discusses in an article about the winery. Wines such as the 2005 Quilceda Creek Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which wine critic Robert Parker gave a rare perfect 100 point score, and the 1998 Tenuta dell'Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore that won Wine Spectator's prestigious Wine of the Year award in 2001 are examples of individual specific wines that are notable but even then it is more advantageous to discuss these wines within the context of the article on their producer (in these cases Quilceda Creek or Ornellaia).


 * Wine styles- These includes on distinct styles of wine that are separate from wine regions or quality level designations like Champagne, Sherry and Port. Wine styles include rosés, sparkling wines, straw wines, fruit wines, fortified wines and dessert wines. These wines should be categorizes in the appropriate sub-cat of Category:Wine styles. These are broad style classifications and not "individual specific wines". For example White Zinfandel would be categorized as Category:Rosé wines as a broad style classification while an article on Sutter Home White Zinfandel (which allegedly pioneered the style) would be a "individual specific wine" worthy of something under the Category:Wines family. However, it should be again noted that articles on individual specific wines are very rare with the content more likely to be included in the producer's article which wouldn't be classified under the Category:Wines family.

Other types of wine articles
The subjects of the articles below are more easily identified and distinguished. Categorizations of these articles are generally simpler with the caveat that these articles are more likely to include categories from outside the scope of the wine topic. For example, enology and winemaking articles such as the Phenolic compounds in wine are likely to have other scientific categories such as Category:Phenols in addition to the parent winemaking cat of Category:Oenology.


 * Wine classifications - These include the many ways that wines can be classified-such as within a region like the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 or Classification of Champagne vineyards, by sweetness level like the Prädikat designations with the German wine classification. These articles should be included in the Category:Wine classification but also in the relevant regional wine category such as Category:Bordeaux wine and Category:German wine, etc.


 * Wine biographies - These includes articles on winemakers, scientists, grape growers, critics, writers, business people and historical figures who have made an important impact on the world of wine. Examples include Jancis Robinson, Ernst Loosen, David Lake, Albert Seibel and Émile Peynaud. These articles should be categorized under both their proper wine-related designations such as Category:Masters of Wine, Category:German winemakers and Category:Viticulturists as well as other pertinent biography categories such as nationality, birth and death dates, educational affiliations, etc.


 * Enology topics


 * Viticulture topics


 * Wine business and marketing topics


 * History of wine articles


 * Wine appreciation topics