Explain How to Read a Wine Label Without Feeling Like a Fraud

Wine labels contain a small amount of genuinely useful information and a larger amount of marketing. Understanding which is which, and what each piece of label information actually tells you about the wine, is enough to make a better choice without any additional expertise. This explains the essential information, defines the common terms, and tells you the one label indicator that most reliably predicts whether a wine is worth buying at the price shown.

I want to understand what a wine label is actually telling me before I buy a bottle. I have {WINE_EXPERIENCE} [for example: almost no knowledge, some basic experience, a general interest but no formal knowledge].

Explain how to read it:
1. The essential information: the [four] pieces of information a label always contains and what each one tells you about the wine
2. What the terminology means: the [three or four] terms most commonly found on wine labels that have specific meanings, each defined in one sentence without jargon
3. What you cannot tell from the label: the important things about a wine that the label legally cannot or does not have to disclose
4. The one thing that predicts value: the single label indicator that most reliably predicts whether a wine is worth what it costs at the price point I am buying at
5. How to ask for help in a shop: how to describe what I want in a wine shop using information from the label, so the assistant can help without me needing specialist vocabulary