Tag Archives: U-Label

Winebits 723: Ingredient labels, Kevin Zraly, wine theft

u-label
Europe’s U-Label project has been delayed until Dec. 1.

This week’s wine news: Europe’s wine ingredient label debut has been delayed a month; plus, Kevin Zraly talks wine and another restaurant suffers a huge wine theft

• U-Label delay: The European U-Label project — ingredient and nutrition information for wine — has been delayed until Dec. 1. The project, which was supposed to launch last week, ran into the well-known “technical difficulties,” reports thedrinksbusiness.  As noted on the blog, this is a landmark moment for the wine business, since it will allow producers big and small to offer ingredient information using QR codes. The delay, though, isn’t surprising, given that no one has really done this before.

• Kevin Zraly: The New York Times’ Eric Asimov calls Kevin Zraly one of the main reasons we drink so much wine in the U.S. and no wonder: His “Windows on the World” is probably the best introductory wine book on the market. Writes Asimov: “For 50 years now, Mr. Zraly, 70, has helped Americans make sense of wine. … Though wine is often considered a forbidding, staid subject, Mr. Zraly made his classes fun, injecting them with humor and energy. He turned them into entertainment.” What more could we ask for? And how far have we fallen from that approach?

• A $300,000 theft: Thieves stole more than $300,000 of wine from a Spanish restaurant, including an 1806 Château d’Yquem and at least six other 19th-century bottles from the exclusive Romanée-Conti winemaker in France’s Burgundy region. “They were professionals, they knew exactly what they were doing,” said one of the restaurant’s co-owners,  whose hotel and restaurant, Atrio, has a 40,000 bottle wine cellar.

Ingredient labels are coming to wine in Europe

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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?