Update: Ingredient labels and nutrition facts for 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.