Nowadays nearly every bottle of wine has a unique International Standard Wine Number (ISWN). The International Standard Wine Number is the worldwide standard that uniquely describes any bottle of wine with a single code.
The ISWN number is allocated by the ISWN Organization on the basis of a global reference database of wine producers and wines worldwide.
The format of the ISWN or ISWN-B is a string of 23 characters.
It is a series of sub-codes, each representing a key characteristic of a bottle of wine:
country |
region |
producer |
wine |
vintage |
volume |
special |
Practical example
From ISWN #71009002180011996007500, we can derive that it is a standard 75 ml bottle of South African Cabernet Sauvignon by Thelema Winery, 1996 vintage.
The ISWN is composed as:
|
710 |
is South Africa |
|
710-09 |
is regio Stellenbosch |
ISWN-P (producer code) |
710-09-00.218 |
is Thelema Winery |
ISWN-W (producer/wine code) |
710-09-00.218-001 |
is Thelema's Cabernet Sauvignon |
ISWN-V (producer/wine/vintage code) |
710-09-00.218-001/1996 |
is the 1996 vintage of this wine |
ISWN-B (bottle code) |
710-09-00.218-001/1996-0075 |
is a 75 ml bottle |