What Is Table Wine? US and European Meanings

In the US, table wine is grape wine with no more than 14% alcohol by volume, as defined in federal rules at 27 CFR 4.21. In everyday speech it just means an ordinary still wine that isn’t fortified or expensive. In Europe the term meant something else: until the reforms of 2008 and 2009, it was the basic tier below quality wine. This guide sorts out the meanings, explains what the words do on a US label and shows what you’ll find today in place of vin de table and vino da tavola.

Table wine at a glance

Where	What “table wine” means	Is it about quality?
US rules	Grape wine of no more than 14% alcohol	No, it’s about alcohol level
Everyday English	Ordinary wine that isn’t fortified or expensive	Loosely: it often suggests inexpensive
Wine trade worldwide	A wine that gets its strength from fermentation alone, as opposed to fortified wine	No
EU, before the 2008/2009 reforms	The large basic category that wasn’t quality wine	Yes, it was the lower tier

The US definition

The federal standards of identity, 27 CFR 4.21, say that table wine “is grape wine having an alcoholic content not in excess of 14 percent by volume.” The same rule says such wine may also be called “light wine”, “red table wine”, “light white wine”, “sweet table wine” and so on. So table wine can be sweet, and “light” here doesn’t promise a low-alcohol wine.

The next category up is dessert wine: grape wine of more than 14% and up to 24% alcohol. That’s a legal line rather than a description of taste, so even a dry red at 14.5% falls in the dessert wine type. TTB’s own example (below) treats a 14.5% still wine that way. Sparkling grape wine is a separate class in the same rule.

In our view, that is the main source of confusion. Our guide to wine alcohol content uses Wine Folly’s ranges to show that most everyday wine runs from about 12% to 15%, and people often call all of it table wine. Strictly speaking, under US rules, a bottle above 14% isn’t.

What it does on a US label

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulates wine labels. Its alcohol rules are the place you’ll actually run into these words:

• Over 14% alcohol: a numerical alcohol statement is mandatory.
• 7% to 14%: the number is optional if the brand label says “table wine” or “light wine”.
• Tolerance: TTB allows the stated figure to differ from the real one by up to 1.5 percentage points at 14% or less, and up to 1 point above 14%.
• The limit: the tolerance can’t carry a wine across a type line. TTB’s example is a still table wine labeled 13.5%, which is acceptable if the wine is between 12% and 14%, but not at 14.5%, because that makes it a dessert wine.

So if a bottle says “Table Wine” with no number, it should be at or below that 14% line, though you can’t tell how far below. We’d look for a number when alcohol level matters to you. Our guide to how to read a wine label walks through the rest of a US label.

There’s also a floor in practice. As our low alcohol wine guide explains, wine under 7% alcohol falls outside TTB’s main wine labeling rules and follows FDA food labeling instead, which fits TTB’s 7% to 14% wording for the “table wine” option.

The European meaning

In Europe, “table wine” was long a quality level rather than an alcohol level. The Oxford Companion to Wine describes it as having had a specific EU meaning until the 2008/2009 reforms: the large, shrinking volume of wine that didn’t qualify as quality wine. It adds a broader, international sense of the term, for wines that rely on fermentation alone for their strength, usually about 9% to 15%, in contrast to fortified wines.

The term has since given way to plainer wording. Current EU rules (Regulation 1308/2013) simply define the product category “wine”, generally with at least 8.5% or 9% actual alcohol depending on the growing zone and no more than 15% total alcohol, with exceptions. Wines with a protected designation of origin (PDO) or protected geographical indication (PGI) sit above wine that has neither. The EU’s 2009 labeling regulation (No 607/2009) is no longer in force: Delegated Regulation 2019/33 repealed it. Those newer rules let wine, including wine without a PDO or PGI, show a vintage if at least 85% of the grapes come from that year, and grape variety names under set conditions.

France: vin de table to Vin de France

BKWine says that when the EU restructured its wine categories in 2009, France renamed vin de table as Vin de France. The new name was more appealing, it says, and it let producers print the vintage and grape variety on the label for the first time. Wikipedia dates the new category’s introduction to 2010, so you’ll see both years.

Today, Vin de France is the least regulated French tier: the wine only has to come from France, with no region required. Our guide to French wine puts it alongside AOC/AOP and IGP.

Italy: vino da tavola and Vino

Vino da tavola was Italy’s table wine designation, according to Wikipedia, which notes that it was generally the country’s lowest level. Italian Wine Central’s current summary of the tiers shows that wines outside DOP and IGP are now simply labeled “wine” or vino. Our guide to Italian wine covers all four levels, from DOCG down.

Italy also shows why the old term was never a reliable sign of quality. Wikipedia explains that the Super Tuscans were sold as table wine because they broke appellation rules, with more international grapes than allowed or without grapes then required, and that the IGT tier, created in 1992, was designed to give them a way out of that classification. In our view, it’s a good reminder to judge a basic classification by the producer rather than the name.

Does “table wine” mean cheap wine?

In casual use, it often does. Wikipedia describes the everyday sense as an ordinary wine that isn’t fortified or expensive and isn’t usually sparkling. Legally, though, price and quality don’t come into the US definition at all. A costly Pinot Noir at 13.5% and a bargain box at 12% both fit it.

In our view, the term tells you very little when you’re choosing a bottle. We’d rely on the producer, the region and published scores instead. Our guide to how wine ratings work explains how critics’ scores compare, and our value lists pair those scores with checked prices.

The short version

• On a US label: grape wine of 14% alcohol or less, with no number required if the words appear on the brand label.
• In conversation: an everyday still wine for a meal.
• On an old European bottle: the basic tier. Today’s labels use terms such as Vin de France and vino instead.

Wine is for adults of legal drinking age (21 in the US). Please drink responsibly.