Tag Archives: nutrition facts box

Update: Ingredient labels and nutrition facts for wine

beer ingredient labels
If light beer, why not wine?

The federal government may be ready to require calories, ingredients, and all the rest

Are we closer than ever to seeing nutrition facts and ingredient labels for wine? That may well be the case.

The TTB, the federal agency that oversees alcohol regulation, is considering proposals to require producers to include ingredients, calories, and the like to wine packaging. In other words, the same information that’s on canned chicken soup, vegan sausage, and soft drinks.

Technically, the process is just starting — it’s called Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the “pre-rule” phase. That means the agency will ask for comments and consider what has been said. If there are enough comments supporting the proposal, the agency could move to a Notice of Rulemaking. This requires another comment period before a final decision.  So we’re not anywhere close to a resolution.

Also, if the TTB moves in this direction, there’s no indication what ingredient listings would include. Would it be enough use the word “grapes” generically? Or would it require naming specific grapes, including grape juice products like Mega Purple? And would oak barrel alternatives, like chips and dust, have to be listed?

I’ve been writing about this since 2003, and there has been little change in the federal government’s position. Yes, it allowed voluntary ingredient labels in 2013, but that has been almost universally ignored by wine; in fact, some of us saw it as a sop to Big Spirits and Big Beer, and not as an actual attempt to add the information.

So what has changed since then?

• A growing awareness that younger consumers want the labels. Several wine industry officials, who had opposed adding the information, have told me that the time has come for ingredients, especially and because of wine’s generation gap. Said one: “Today, with consumers asking for more about their food, I think it’s an imperative.”

• Improved technology, which will make it easier for small producers to add the labels. This has always been a key obstacle, since more than 80 percent of U.S. wineries make fewer than 5,000 cases a year.

• The Biden Administration’s renewed focus on the alcohol business, which the three previous administrations mostly ignored (save for the Trump tariff, of course).

• The growth in so-called “healthy wines,” which claim to be better for you but seem to be mostly like every other wine. The TBB has warned producers to stop making these kinds of health claims, and ingredient labels and nutrition facts would make sure they don’t.

Having said all of this, there is still tremendous resistance to adding the information among powerful groups within the wine business. This means, even if the TTB wants to require labels, there’s no guarantee that it will be able to do so. Wine has successfully fought against them for almost 20 years, and there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t prevail again.

Ingredient labels are coming to wine in Europe

u-label
European wine drinkers will be able to scan a QSR code to find that a glass of wine has 125 calories. Which, apparently, is some sort of closely guarded wine industry secret in the U.S.

So what’s the excuse for U.S. producers now?

Wine drinkers in Europe are getting a chance to see what ingredients go into their wine. Which, of course, is something that U.S. producers have fought long and hard against, claiming it would be too confusing, too costly, and take up too much room on the bottle.

The project, called U-Label, will use QR codes on wine and spirits bottles – scan the code, and you’ll be taken to a website that lists ingredient and nutrition information for the product. The European Union plans to make ingredient labels on wine and spirits mandatory over the next several years. This voluntary program is the European wine and spirits business’ effort to get ahead of the EU and offer a template for the regulation.

Currently, federal law allows for voluntary labeling in the U.S., but only a handful of producers use it. Some wine labels, which make calorie or nutrition claims, are required to use nutrition labels.

My freelance piece for the Pix.wine site has the details. Among the highlights:

• Currently, there are no plans to require the U-Label on wine exported to the United States. But producers who want to include the label on wines sent to the U.S. can, and U.S. consumers who bring wine back from Europe will also have access to the QR code website.

• The U-Label will include calorie and other nutritional information, responsible drinking guidelines, a health warning with pictogram, and details on sustainability. Most EU countries have strict laws regulating what goes into their wine, but there are few ways for consumers who aren’t wine geeks to figure that out. The U-Label will solve that.

• The cost to participate is €250 (about US$290), making it affordable for almost any producer, regardless of size. Cost has been a key argument against labels in the U.S., on the theory that small producers would be harmed more than large ones.

More about wine ingredient labels:
• Beer drinkers — and Big Beer – love nutrition facts labels
• Leading wine experts call for ingredient and nutrition labels
• Clean wine: Has the Winestream Media finally figured out why we need nutrition and ingredient labels?

Leading wine experts call for ingredient and nutrition labels

nutrition labels
Remember when Bonny Doon took the lead in adding ingredient labels to wine? And we thought labels had a chance to spread?

Has the time finally come for ingredient and nutrition labels — given that people with initials after the name agree with the WC?

The past couple of weeks have been filled with demonic news stories about pandemic drinking and the imminent alcoholism of anyone who has ever had a glass of wine with dinner.

How about: “Soaring Pandemic Alcohol Sales Cause Concern For Doctors”!

Or, “America’s all or nothing attitude toward alcohol: Binge or be sober”

And, “As pandemic drinking surges. …”

So what’s the wine industry to do? Obviously, it hasn’t done much of a job reminding people that the U.S. is not anywhere near a collective drunken stupor. As noted here way too many times, there is little evidence we’re drinking more during the pandemic.

Dare the Wine Curmudgeon suggest – once again – ingredient and nutrition labels? And, this time, I’m not the only one who thinks so.

No less than the Institute of Masters of Wine recently held a webinar on the subject – and many people with initials after their name said ingredient and nutrition labels were a good idea.

And imagine my joy when Ines Salpico, writing in a British trade magazine, spared no punches: “Wine has been able keep itself at the margins of a basic consumer right: knowing the full list of ingredients and allergens present in a product. … [G]reater transparency needs to be seen as a key opportunity rather than a threat.”

Her argument makes perfect sense to everyone but the wine business:

• “Transparency will engage a generation of consumers that is data-driven, data-hungry and very skeptic about products without full traceability.” In other words, all those young people who don’t drink wine.

• Labels will make wine seem more like a food product and less like tobacco, a tactic that the neo-Prohibitionists have been using to great success.

• The lack of labels gives the impression that producers “might have something to hide,” and makes it possible for foolishness like clean wine and healthy wine.

So, once more, please: Can’t we offer ingredient and nutrition labels on wine?